As Strange As Fate
by LoreenaLaufeyson
Summary: Tony and Loki were facing each other as enemies, but Lady Fate had other plans. And what plans! Had she lost her freaking, crazy, addled Norn mind? TONY/LOKI slow build
1. Chapter 1

Hello, there ;) Are you ready to read some Frostiron (aka Tony/Loki for the new fans out there)? Well, then you are very welcome :) I just gotta say, this is a slow build, so don't expect 'things' to happen soon. I don't even know what I mean by 'things' – bah, I guess I'll see about that later :p

Right now – as in the day I'm releasing my first chapter – I have written about 10 chapters of this fic already, which is about 30k words (I've never written this much before) and I don't know how long it's going to get in the end. I intended to put this online only after I finished writing everything, but I'm too excited to show you guys this, so here is chapter 1!

 **Title:** As Strange As Fate

 **Rating:** No idea yet, but I'd like to make this a proper slash fic with real explicit 'stuff' going on, so I'm putting it on max for now (even though you certainly won't find anything in at least the first 10 chapters XD)

 **Disclaim:** These beauties aren't mine :'( This universe and characters are the MCU's, even though I might change the laws and f- with their heads, because I do what I want :p (such as adding some stuff from Norse mythology etc. Even though I do what I want with that too ;))

 **Warning:** THIS IS (will be) SLASH! So if you are a homophobe, I'd urge you to click on the little exit button somewhere at the top of your screen. No need to complain anywhere below this warning :p

 **Timeframe:** You will notice that this fic starts in the middle – more like two thirds – of The Avengers, because I'm modifying the ending of one of my favourite scenes and going from there ;) So you'll need anything needed to understand The Avengers (like Iron Man 1  & 2 and Thor, and maybe you'll need Captain America The First Avenger too, we'll see, and you shouldn't need any of the Hulks).

Okay guys – though it's probably gals ;) – we're starting with a Loki POV, so have fun!

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 **CHAPTER 1**

This was the home of one of the most eminent personalities and mightiest warrior of Midgard, and it looked so very plain! There was no gold, no exposed riches. Had this been the palace of a modest man, Loki would have understood its interior; with a home this size, and his name illuminating the sky at night, Anthony Stark was not modest in the least. The surroundings might be plain, yet they were still done in a _tastefully_ plain manner. If he had not more important things to do, Loki might have been able to appreciate it all.

He walked up to the glass and looked out over the ugly grey city that was soon to be his. Some of these buildings, like Stark's, were quite the engineering feats for beings without strength or magic, he could admit that. The rest, though. It was simply hideous. He would raze it to the ground and make this place beautiful again. As green and lush as it was some thousand years ago. There he would retire from all the wars, the hate, the politics – were those not all the same thing in the end? There he would rest for a while, and finally breathe. And he would forget. That was the most important part of all this.

A sudden surge of power of the Tesseract made him look in its direction, even though he could not see it through the ceiling. The ripple of that power made his skin crawl; the magic in that one object was so dense and bright – he wanted to both hold onto it and never let go, and shield his eyes from its blindingly unending potential.

He teleported to the balcony, his borrowed sceptre gripped tightly in his hand. It was time for the next phase. His long-awaited guest had arrived. He had wondered if his plan had been too subtle, if mortals could be clever enough to reach him before the fun part – and his army – arrived. Apparently, the owner of this tower was indeed capable of a modicum of reasoning.

Iron Man, in his battered flying armour, was lowering himself down to the platform situated one floor up. Why did supposedly righteous people – who were, in reality, conceited idiots – always choose the colours red and gold? A large mechanical ring lifted itself from the floor while Stark walked towards glass doors, divesting him of his only weapon. Loki smirked as he himself walked back inside. Such arrogance from such a weak creature. Such stupidity.

The moment he knew Stark could hear him, free of the rushing wind from outside, Loki spoke. "Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity." The idea was an amusing one, and so typical of Midgardian defenders. Typical of many so-called heroes, in fact. Trying to ask compassion from an enemy that so obviously came to destroy you. It was such a ludicrous idea.

"Er, actually I'm planning to threaten you," Stark answered, slowly walking towards the stairs that lead down to the floor Loki was on. Getting closer. So much unfounded confidence. And yet Stark did not take his eyes of Loki – a wise choice, acting like the prey he was. It might not show on his face, but Stark must be trembling from fear on the inside. He merely pretended he was not; that bravery was so foolish, and got so many people killed.

Loki let a breathy chuckle escape. "You should have left your armour on for that." The mortal facing him bare like this was such a ridiculous notion. No wonder they never lived very long – knowing how weak their bodies were, they should be taking care to avoid dangerous situations, not walk into them on purpose. Even with that little armour of his, Stark would not have been much of a threat, so coming to him without it was rather insulting, in fact. He felt underestimated, and he hated it. He had been underestimated all his life. Was it ever going to stop? When he was king of Midgard, it would. He would see to that!

"Yeah. It's seen a bit of mileage and you've got the little stick of destiny." Stick of Destiny? Loki looked down at his sceptre, and smirked. The name was absurd, yet it was still amusing. With this sceptre, he was definitely going to challenge Fate and make his life what it was meant to be, giving him the power he was meant to have.

"Would you like a drink?" Stark asked him then, standing behind the bar, as if Loki were a welcome guest. Very threatening, indeed; Stark was trying to mellow him, so that he could convince him to stop his invasion of Midgard. Stark had been lying. Typical. Loki was not surprised in the least.

"Stalling me won't change anything," he said, sneering.

"No, no, no, threatening! No drink, you're sure? I'm having one." The mortal's apparent lack of fear was annoying, and Loki turned away, gazing at the cityscape. It would not do if his irritation showed on his face – _he_ was in control of this situation, damn the Norns! Stark's blasé attitude was starting to grate on his nerves! His fist tightened around the sceptre.

"The Chitauri are coming," he said, looking out the floor to ceiling windows, but not seeing the buildings beyond. "Nothing will change that." And nothing would, even if he had been inclined to cease his attack. His army was not truly his, after all. It was merely borrowed. Like the sceptre. Like the Tesseract. Nothing was truly his yet. Even so, his borrowed possessions made him extremely powerful, and that feeling was the most elating of all. Why should he care about the true source of that power? He turned back to face Stark then. "What have I to fear?"

"The Avengers." There was pause after those words, as if Stark was hoping to spark some sort of recognition. Loki frowned. Were there some other enemies he had not taken into account? Stark rolled his eyes and continued. "That's what we call ourselves, it's like a team. Earth's mightiest heroes, type thing." Stark poured himself some sort of alcohol then, and Loki had to force back a snicker.

"Yes, I've met them." His smirk was mocking, and the mortal could not mistake his meaning in any way. If those were Midgard's mightiest warriors, this Realm would be his the moment his army arrived.

"Yeah," Stark said, chuckling at their incompetence. At least he was not stupid enough not to see how hopeless his own situation was. "Takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one but, let's do a head count here: your brother, the demi-god," the mortal continued, and all Loki could do was sigh in frustration and turn away again. Firstly, Thor was not a Midgardian 'hero', so citing him was cheating; and secondly, why did everyone always start their enumerations of mighty warriors his bloody oaf of a not-brother? He was not even on Asgard anymore! Why was Thor still the shiny beacon of light, and Loki the unwanted shadow? Especially knowing that, up until now, Loki had always been the voice of reason in whatever foolish quest Thor embarked upon. No more, though. Now he would be mightier than Thor – now he would be king before Thor was!

Stark had continued, unperturbed. "A super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with… breath-taking anger management issues." Loki looked back at Stark at the mention of the green beast, an amused smirk painting his lips. The mortal obviously did not know about the 'anger management issues' that plague his bro— that plagued Thor as well. "A couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

 _That was rather the point_ , he thought. He tried not to smile but failed; this mortal was quite amusing. Where was the fun in taking this puny planet merely by surprise? No, he wanted to crush them like the disgusting little ants they were! And what could be better than beating their mightiest warriors in one of their most prominent cities, for all of Midgard to see? "That was the plan."

"Not a great plan," the mortal countered. Such arrogance, and such ignorance! Stark walked around the bar, approaching slowly. This was truly one of the most foolish enemies he had ever faced! Perhaps mortals did not live very long because of their innate death wish. "When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

Loki refused to repeat himself, yet the urge was still there. That was the plan! How stupid could this supposed mortal genius be? Of course, as a mortal term, 'genius' did not mean much. And even in other Realms, and beyond, Loki had not met many beings he could call intelligent. Still, he had hoped for… more. Better. He stated the obvious instead. "I have an army."

"We have a Hulk," was Stark's immediate answer, and wasn't that laughable? The mortal was getting closer and closer, a glass full of some sort of local mead in his hand, bare of arms and yet unyielding. And the only thing he had to offer to defeat an entire army was a mindless green beast that was not even here! This conversation might be one of the most preposterous things Loki had ever had to go through – and he had talked all his life to Thor of all people!

"Oh, I thought the beast had wandered off?" he answered, and Stark's slight stutter as he replied was everything Loki had hoped for.

"Y-You're missing the point, there is no throne, no version of this where you come out on top!" Stark was trying to look self-assured and smug. Anger and annoyance seeped into his voice though, and there was fear hidden in his eyes, Loki knew it even if the mortal concealed it admirably well. Loki could smell it, however. That might actually be the only perk of not being Æsir. Being able to relish in the fact that he could make his enemies tremble in their boots; that, even if they threw up a brave face, they could not ignore how powerful Loki truly was.

Stark was only ten feet away now. "Maybe your army comes, and maybe it's too much for us but it's all on you. 'Cause if we can't protect the Earth you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it." Such big words for such a tiny, puny creature! Stark nonchalantly took a sip of his drink, as if Loki was nothing to be concerned about. And even though he knew it was all an act, even though he could smell the adrenaline cloying the air, Loki was still enraged by such open defiance. How dare this feeble mortal stand before him as if he were the equal of a god?

Loki strode threateningly forward, yet Stark stood his ground. This would not do! Not at all! He would break this pretend 'hero', mind and soul! "How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?" He made his voice ooze threat, and his face promised danger; the fear that clearly screamed through Stark's widened eyes was magnificent, and Loki loved it. The mortal still stoically stood his ground, and though it was foolish, Loki had to admit he was impressed. _Fear not, little mortal, you shall soon be free_.

His sceptre crackled with magic, the charging power clearly audible, and with a flourish Loki touched it to Stark's chest. The moment the point came into contact with the cloth, the strangest thing happened; a resounding 'ting' rang through the silence, and the spell dissipated instantly. Loki could not contain his confusion, and it surely must have shown as his face fell. He looked down at Stark's chest, but there was nothing to see. This should be working! He tried again, magic charging, point thrust into the mortal's chest just a bit harder, which should have been enough to draw blood, and yet he was met with unusual resistance, and the spell was countered, just like that. This was impossible. His eyebrows drew together, and he felt rather foolish when he felt compelled to admit: "This usually works." Never had his magic failed him like this.

"Well, performance issues," Stark had the gall to say, his tone as blasé as they came. He even made a face, as if the subject was understandably an unpleasant one, as if he sympathised. Loki's muscles grew taut with the rage that was building in them. The mortal dared mock him! "Not uncommon. One out of five, I—"

Enraged, Loki grabbed him by the throat, intent on squeezing the life out of this disgusting creature. Anything to shut him up! Anything to stop humiliation to wash over him again, like it had so very often during his too long lifetime. And yet! And yet something stopped him, blocked him, burned his hand form inside out the moment he touched the mortal's skin, and letting him go was just a reflex. Stark flew through the air and skidded on the floor towards the windows.

"Jarvis, anytime now!" the mortal murmured, but Loki did not care, whatever it meant. He did not care, he did not understand, he just wanted to choke Stark to death. Before he knew it Stark had crawled to a stand and Loki had his hand back on his throat, fingers splayed on the bruise on the man's cheek, trying to squeeze, and failing.

He wanted to growl 'you will all fall before me', he wanted to squeeze and maybe throw the mortal out of his own tower, and yet he could not. His hand, his arm, his chest, his brain; he was burning, burning inside! A voice inside his head was screaming ' _Squeeze!_ ', and ' _Kill him!_ ' and ' _You are mine!_ ', and it was not _his_ voice, it was not _him_. He had not seen it before. How could he not have seen it before? There was someone in his head! There was— _Thanos_! Of course! The torture, physical, mental, he remembered now!

The arm holding the sceptre felt almost dead; his whole arm was as cold as death, and it was agonising! He faintly registered that the screaming he heard must be his own, yet he was unable to stop it. He could not control a single muscle in his body. The hand around Stark's throat was merely tingling now, holding onto the flesh like a lifeline, yet not squeezing enough to do much more than make the mortal red in the face. It was in his arms and chest that a war was going on – a brutal clash of hot and cold magic that surely would kill him if it went on any longer!

Suddenly Stark took hold of Loki's hand with both of his, probably intent on removing the chocking grip; without any will on his part, Loki's hand shifted its grasp, taking one of Stark's hand in his instead. The sudden surge of heat brought him to his knees with a cry, and his death grip on the mortal made the man cry out as well. Through his tear-filled eyes he saw his skin starting to shimmer, a white so pure glowing from it that he had to close his lids, yet the light blinded him still.

He was dying! He had to be! This was utter agony! He could hear his own cries and moans, he could hear Stark yelling some words he could not understand at the moment, he could hear the power sizzling under his skin, two foreign forces fighting each other to the death. He could feel them burning, one so hot, the other so cold, the apex of their clashing point subtly moving. He could feel wetness dribbling down his cheeks. He could feel Stark's naked hand in his, and a metal one on his wrist trying to wrench it away.

When he opened his eyes he could see again; Stark was wearing another armour that covered him from head to toe, except for the hand Loki couldn't let go off. The mortal's masked face was as inscrutable as the forces wreaking havoc within him. A new wave crashed upon him, almost making him drown in magic, and as his vision started to blur and darken he wondered if he could ever remember how one was supposed to breathe. A second later air rushed into his longs and he could see again; Stark's face was bare once more, full of bewilderment, fear, pain, and, most ridiculously, concern. The hand on his wrist was not metal but flesh now, and Loki wondered when that had happened. Also, Iron Man was kneeling now as well – the only thing holding Loki somewhat upright.

Without his notice his left arm, still gripping the sceptre the Other had given him on Thanos' demand, was held aloft, the weapon held away from his body as far as physically possible, and it was quivering like a leaf in the autumn wind. The hot, white magic had reached his shoulder and was pushing the cold and dark influence of the Mad Titan out of his body. Thanos' influence had already left his head; the only thing the Lover of Death was still connected to was the sceptre, corrupted by his foul-tasting power. Through it, he was trying to regain what he had lost: access to Loki's very soul.

He had to let go of the sceptre. He had to, although he could not fathom how. He was too tired. He could not control the muscles in either of his arms. And if this power surging through him continued any longer, there might not be anyone left to control for any influence, hot or cold, white or black, that was going to win this fight. He had to let go somehow. How? ' _Anthony Stark_ ' a voice said. Not Thanos'. Another voice he knew, but could not place. He did not want to listen to it, yet its idea had merit.

The first time he tried to talk, nothing but a hiss and garbled moan came out of his throat. He made eye-contact with Stark, willing his gaze to stay focused on those brown irises, and tried again. "N… No… Sce— Scep… tre…"

"What?" The puzzled look on the mortal's face did not bode well. If he did not understand soon… "Look, man, I don't know what to do here. You look very sick and all, but you're kind of my enemy here, just so you know. I don't know if I'm supposed to help you even if you kick the bucket. Point Break would be sad, sure, and he's a cool guy, so maybe I should kinda help. But it's not like I know anything about your voodoo-epilepsy-attack thing, so there is nothing I can do. I'd like it if you let go of my hand though, 'cause that hurts like hell."

Loki hadn't managed to follow the ramblings of the mortal; it all seemed so inconsequential. The only thing that mattered was the sceptre, and letting go of it. Right. This. Second. He had to try again. "No… Sc—"

"You've got your goddamn sceptre in your hand, what more do you want?" Stark shouted, gesticulating wildly with his free arm, panic starting to lace his words.

"Don't… want…," he managed to croak out before the world started to fade again from his vision, and he felt the ground tilting quite suddenly. A hand under his arm – the cold arm, the dead arm – put the world upright again. Or maybe it put _him_ back upright. He was not sure; he could not think. He thought Stark was talking again, but he felt like he was underwater. He could not make out the words, or breathe, or see more than blurred colours, and he wondered if the lack of rush in his ears mean his heart had stopped beating.

Perhaps this was the end. His end. It was a silly one, certainly, but he did not expect anything less from Lady Fate. She had always mocked him, toyed with him. And now, he was to die in the arms of an enemy – a puny mortal one at that – from some unknown magical attack! This certainly sounded like a cosmic joke! Both in life and death he was the laughing stock of the Nine Realms!

Letting go would be so easy. It would stop the suffering. He would not have to care about what anyone thought of him. His only regret would be not seeing Mother one last time – even though she was not really his mother. Did she even consider herself his mother, after all this? It might be better not to know. Just let go. And then what? Then eternal death on Helheim, before he disappeared altogether? _He_ certainly would never reach the halls of Valhalla. Which was worse, though? Life here, or death there?

Colour exploded in his vision, and his heart pound so fiercely against his ribcage that the beating it was taking should leave bruises at the very least. Something – or someone – was trying to tug the sceptre out of his painfully closed fist. He did not need to see it to know that Stark, his enemy, but his only ally against the battle raging within him, was trying to help him. He was truly lucky that Stark had this ridiculous armour to lend him strength, because he had to fight the death grip of a god; even if the strength of this particular god was rather pathetically weak. The unfortunate consequences of being a Jötunn runt. Today, it might work in his advantage, though. Oh, the irony!

With one metal-covered hand on the sceptre, and a foot on Loki's arm, Stark was pulling and pushing with all his might, the mechanical suit whirring and whining at the strain. Loki dared not hope. He had already abandoned all hope when it took so long and he felt like he was dying all over again.

All of a sudden, it ended. The sceptre slipped from his inert hand, and the blindingly hot force pulsed through his entire being one last time before being snuffed out like a spark in outer space the moment Stark's hand fell from his. With nothing to support him he crumpled to the floor and darkness overcame him once more; but not before a familiar voice – Fate, he remembered now! – whispered in his mind: " _You are now one soul_."

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Hope you liked reading this just as much as I liked writing it! And if you did, maybe you could let me know in some way or another ;)

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	2. Chapter 2

Hello :) Here is the next chapter – hopefully – for your pleasure! Still a Loki POV this time. Let me know what you think ;)

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _All of a sudden, it ended. The sceptre slipped from his inert hand, and the blindingly hot force pulsed through his entire being one last time before being snuffed out like a spark in outer space the moment Stark's hand fell from his. With nothing to support him he crumpled to the floor and darkness overcame him once more; but not before a familiar voice – Fate, he remembered now! – whispered in his mind: "_ You are now one soul _."_

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 **CHAPTER 2**

It seemed like an eternity later, but it must have been mere minutes. When he opened his eyes, the world only slowly came into focus, and the moment he tried to move every muscle in his body burned in complaint, and his head felt like it was being split in two. He had barely inched a hand forward on the tiled floor when the sound of a charging energy source reached his ears. It almost felt like magic, in its raw, wild form – before it was shaped into a spell – and yet there was an unnatural tang to it. When he finally managed to lift his head, he understood why.

Loki squinted up at the source; it was coming from Stark's armoured hand, and it was pointed straight at his face. The mortal was crouching a few feet away, one forearm cradled against his chest – the hand Loki must have crushed involuntarily – and his unmasked face stared at him suspiciously. His skin was moist from sweat and his hair flattened by it; perhaps Stark had not been as unaffected by the raging magic in the room as Loki had first thought. The sceptre was nowhere to be seen.

"Who are you?" Stark said, and Loki merely blinked back in surprise. What an odd thing to ask!

"Why, Stark," he rasped, his voice broken by his previous screaming, no doubt. "I didn't realise your memory was even shorter than your lifespan."

"Yeah, okay, so you're still the same arrogant prick as before. What the hell happened to you?"

"I am… unsure." Loki managed to shift his position to a sitting one, even though ever muscle involved in the operation quaked harder than before. Even when he stopped moving, his body continued shivering for no apparent reason.

"Well, I hope it's not contagious or anything. I'd like to keep my nice tan, and that kinda blue doesn't suit me. Though I gotta say, with the green and the leather, it's quite the fashion statement you have there!"

Loki looked down at his lapis-coloured hands in shock. How could he not have realised? How could he not have seen? He brought two quivering hands up to his face and touched the bumps and ridges edged on his skin. He closed his eyes – crimson eyes. Eyes that Stark had seen. Stark had seen him. His true form. His monstrous form. His breathing accelerated in a way that he stubbornly refused to call panic.

"What, _is_ it contagious? Are you gonna die? Am _I_ gonna die?"

He released a humourless chuckle that had the benefit of calming him down. He looked at the worried mortal again. The almost magical weapon was not pointed at him anymore, and Stark had chosen to cradle his injured limb with his other hand instead.

"I am not going to die," he said, and his tone was as incredulous as he felt. He had survived! He had survived all that incredible magic coursing through him! And even more incredulously, his mind was free from Thanos' influence! His mind was his own again! It felt like an eternity since that had been the case. After all the craziness after Thor's near coronation – the discovery that his whole life had been a lie, the sudden drunkenness of a power he had never truly wanted – after the loneliness and the cold of the void, after the torture and the sweet promises of revenge, his mind was finally free. Finally clear. Clear enough to see the humongous trouble he had caused once again, even though it was not entirely his fault.

"Yeah, well, what about me? I'm not gonna become a Smurf, am I?"

Loki smiled depreciatively. Whatever a 'Smurf' was, it probably was meant as an insult; any word referring to Jötnar usually was. "You will not become like me, no, as this is merely the skin I was born in." Even though it was only the truth, those words left an acrid aftertaste on his tongue.

"Oooh, right. Thor did say you were adopted." Had he? How unsurprising! The moment Loki did something unseemly, Thor did not waste a second to renounce him, did he? "I didn't expect the blue-skinned alien thing to be a thing, though. It's kinda cool! And Thor, does he change colour too?"

Loki could not stop himself from smirking at the thought. "Not unless I curse him."

Stark threw him an answering smirk. "Too bad! I was already imagining him in neon pink!"

Just for an instant, Loki's lips morphed themselves in a genuinely amused smile, and he could have imagined that the situation was a completely different one. One in which this mortal and he were not enemies, in which they could even be said to be on friendly terms. The idea did not last more than a second, though.

An army he was supposed to lead was going to burst from the sky at any moment, leaving only destruction in their wake. What was he supposed to do? It was not as if he still had the ludicrous delusion of ruling this Realm; it was not as if he had ever really wanted to rule any Realm. Ruling only brought responsibilities and took away so much freedom – unless one was a bad ruler, of course. The only thing he had wanted was to best Thor and be recognised as worthy once and for all. And that was never going to happen now – never mind that he had brought distraught to a weak and innocent world such as this. He was a Frost Giant. Frost Giants were never worthy.

"Sir!" an unknown voice said, and Loki looked around without finding the source. "Some sort of gateway has formed above the Tower, and unidentifiable lifeforms are passing through it."

Stark sprung to his feet immediately, obviously intend on going outside to fight. As if a mere mortal could fight a Chitauri army! The fool had no idea he was walking to his death! "Wait!" Loki said, even though he had no idea why he should be bothered. What was one mortal in the scheme of things? They would all die soon anyway, even if it was not in combat. Still, he felt responsible for this man's life, because taking the sceptre away from him might very well have saved him. And that might mean a life debt. Loki might find most of Asgard's traditions foolish, but life debts at least should be honoured in any Realm.

And in a way, Loki was responsible for the deaths he had already brought on Midgard, even if they were only mortal lives. Furthermore, it was his presence in the hands of Thanos and the Other that had brought this invasion upon Midgard right now. If not for him, it might have taken the Mad Titan years, maybe decades to get here; it was the reason for the portal after all.

If not for this life debt, however, he would not be considering helping. He should leave this Realm as soon as possible. Thanos would seek retribution for escaping his grasp. And yet, he was contemplating defying the most terrifying sorcerer in the universe, to avenge himself for all the pain he had endured at his and his subordinates' hands. It was as stupid as most of Thor's quests, and yet he still felt drawn to the idea. And if it happened to save Midgard and this particular mortal in the process, so be it.

"Listen, Cookie Monster, I don't have time for you right now, I have an alien invasion to stop. So if you intend to kill me, have at it! Otherwise, I got to go."

Loki nearly growled at the monster comment, but managed to rein it in at the last second. This was not the time to wallow in his unfortunate origins. He got shakily to his feet, not looking at his still blue hands when he pushed himself up; he did not have the time or the energy to get out of this skin right now. "I don't intend to kill you, I'm trying to save you! You cannot possibly defeat the Chitauri army!"

Stark looked at him as if he had lost his mind – or, at least, became even crazier than before. Loki could not blame him for that; he had had his hand on the mortal's throat some minutes ago after all. "What's it to you? I thought you would be doing the happy dance once we 'mortals' were all dead."

"I…" Loki couldn't really explain his reasoning. It was complicated to say the least, and he was not even sure if he understood it all himself. Any explanation would be taking too long either way. "Let's say I changed my mind." And wasn't that the understatement of the century? His mind had certainly changed; it was free of influence once again. "Perhaps you appealed to my humanity after all," he smirked, remembering the first thing he had said when he confronted Stark in his home.

Stark's demeanour changed immediately, and reminded Loki of Thor when he was trying to entice a woman into doing his bidding with his eyes alone. "Was it my ruggedly handsome charm?"

Amused, Loki lifted an eyebrow and swept his eyes over Stark's amour-clad body. "Spin whatever tale you wish."

"Ouch!"

Before the Midgardian could try to leave again – Loki could hear voices coming from the man's armour, beckoning him to fight – he should explain enough to persuade him to do this the right way. "There is an army of more than a million beings on the other side of that portal! The Chitauri fight using a hive-mind, so if the portal were to be closed, the sheer distance might be enough to sever the link and they would all collapse."

"Let's imagine that I believe you – you, the God of Lies—"

"I am NOT the God of Lies! I am the God of Mischief!" Loki shouted. It was perhaps not the most productive turn the conversation could take, but it certainly needed to be mentioned. He was sick of always being pegged as a liar.

"As if that's any better! So, let's pretend you're saying the truth for a second here. How do you propose to shut down a portal generated by the Cube, that happens to be shielding itself with everlasting power?"

"The sceptre. It can breach the barrier and deactivate the Tesseract."

Stark snorted. "Your sceptre! Figures! And you're probably going to say that only _you_ can do it, so that I give you back your weapon and you can kill me with it!"

"I would not need the sceptre to kill you, if that were my intention. And as long as you stop doubting me at every turn, I won't have to. As for the sceptre, I would prefer to never touch it again." Loki had no way of knowing how strong Thanos' connection to the weapon was, or if the connection was still there. He would rather not find it out first hand.

"Well, you can't expect me to suddenly trust you!"

"I am not asking you to. It would be unwise of you to trust an enemy." Never mind that Loki was not truly an enemy of Midgard. "I'm merely trying to save all our lives, mine included. You realise that if I help you, I will become the Chitauri's enemy as well."

"I thought you said they were your army? Can't you just tell them to stand down or something?"

"Oh, no, they were never _my_ army. I was only supposed to be the vanguard, sent to open the way for Thanos' true forces." Perhaps he should not have named the true evil behind this attack.

"Who's Thanos?" Loki would have sighed in defeat if he had been alone. Evoking the Mad Titan's name was never a good idea, and this was hardly the time for such a conversation; something had to be done about the army pouring out of the city's sky.

"It does not matter! We have to close that portal!"

"Okay, sheesh! Don't get your panties in a bunch, princess! We're going!" Stark stalked back towards the bar, opened a cabinet door and pulled the sceptre out of it. He had hidden such a dangerous weapon in a liquor cabinet! Did this mortal have any brains at all? Sceptre in hand, Stark walked towards the elevator, then inside it when the doors immediately opened. "Come on, Doctor Manhattan, we don't have all day! I thought you were in a hurry?"

Loki made his way to Stark as quickly as he could, his knees almost betraying him too many times to count. Once inside the metal box he slumped against the wall and tried not to appear as out of breath as he felt. All he really wanted to do was hide somewhere safe and sleep for a whole year. Instead, he was risking his life for mortals who would die a few decades from now at most. It seemed like such a waste.

A few seconds or so later – too soon – the doors opened again to a gravel-covered roof. "All right, Jarv', let's get battle ready!" Stark said, grimacing as he flexed his swollen hand and walked into the sunlight.

"That would be unadvisable, Sir." It was the same disembodied voice Loki had heard before, though this time it came both from Stark's armour and from the still open lift.

"I know that, and I don't care, just do it!" A gauntlet unfolded itself over the mortal's skin, and Stark yelled and swore in pain when it closed around his flesh. "Fucking hell, that hurts!" Through his mask, Stark's voice sounded artificial, and yet it managed to convey his anger perfectly well. "You owe me a new hand, you bastard!"

Loki's answer of "I am well aware" was drowned amongst the barrage of shots between Iron Man and passing Chitauri, and all Loki could do was hide inside the elevator like a frightened maiden. He hated being so powerless! Yet both his body and his magic were depleted of strength, and he would rather not end up full of holes. He could not even summon his armour into being – how humiliating could this get?

Fate must be mocking him for his last thought; for Stark decided then that climbing up the ladder would either be too slow or too dangerous, so instead he leapt inside, awkwardly grabbed Loki by the waist with one arm, dragged him out and flew up the few yards to the Tesseract and an unconscious Dr Selvig.

"Jarvis, tell the team I'm working on closing the portal and cut communications, I don't need them chattering in my ears right now." Stark shot at a few more passing enemies with projectiles that flew out of his shoulders. "All right, Blue Beauty, now what?"

Loki barely had the time to be surprised by the strange moniker. A ripple of resounding thunder and a streak of red chose that exact moment to fly towards them at high speed. Thor's landing caused a shower of gravel, some of the small rocks hitting the Tesseract's barrier – those pieces were thrown back with such force that one of the Chitauri vessels went down after impact. Loki was lucky that the one that whistled passed his ear did not choose another, more unfortunate path. His oaf of an adoptive brother could be such a bumbling idiot!

When Thor looked at him, he only faltered for an instant when he saw his true appearance. "Loki, stop this madness before it is too late!"

Oh, for the love of Yggdrasil! Loki groaned in frustration. "What do you think I am doing, you imbecile!" he snarled. That seemed stop Thor in his tracks; obviously he'd had a whole speech prepared, and Loki's answer had derailed him. Typical! "Go save those poor mortals you love so much instead of standing there gaping!"

"What?"

A Leviathan cried out as it entered Midgard's atmosphere, and any response died on Loki's lips. "Uh oh!" Stark said, and he couldn't agree more. This was all getting out of hand fast. The portal had to be closed! Now!

He looked back at Thor. "GO! What are you waiting for?" And for once in his life, that blond idiot had the decency to listen to what Loki said. Thank the Norns for small miracles! Loki turned back to Stark, who was still looking up at the portal and what was beyond. "Thrust the point of the sceptre through the barrier and nudge the Tesseract out of alignment!" Stark did not move, however. "Anthony Stark! What are you doing? Close the portal!"

"Hey Jarvis, zoom in on that, would you? Holy shit, is that what I think it is?"

"I cannot say with any certainty, Sir, but it might indeed be a mothership," the disembodied voice answered, and Loki looked up again. He could not see whatever it was Stark saw, but he did not doubt that the size of the Chitauri army hidden behind this small gateway into space was rather substantial. In any case, the size of the army did not matter. All they had to do was close the portal, and the attack would be cut short!

"Say, Loki. You said these aliens had a hive-mind, right? Does that mean the 'head' is the biggest ship up there?"

"Probably. That's why when we close the port—"

"We'll come to that. But first—"

"STARK!"

"—want to know if whoever is invading Earth – if it ain't you – will come back some other way if we close the portal."

All Loki could do was stand there, mouth slightly agape. Of course, the mortal had a point, it just surprised him that such a young and ignorant being could get to that conclusion on his own; closing the portal would only delay Thanos' thirst for Midgard, and the Chitauri would come back through regular space travel, even if it took years. Even so, what else was there but closing the portal?

"Of course they'll come back! There is nothing we can do about it right now! All there is to do is stop _this_ invasion!"

"What, you don't think we could blow their mothership to smithereens first, or something?"

Loki laughed. He just laughed, even though this was all far from amusing. "You think _you_ , a mortal, can destroy an entire army?"

"Well, not _me_ specifically." Loki laughed again, and Stark lifted his mask to frown at him. "Right, so you're telling me that our weapons are so pathetic that you would survive a nuke in your face?"

"What is a 'nuke'?"

"Ah, I see! You are merely uninformed! How about I show you what we 'mortals' can do? Jarv', get me Fury on the line." There was a pause. "Hey, if it ain't my favourite pirate!"

" _What do you want, Stark? I'm a little busy here!_ " another voice grumbled, and Loki recognised the voice of the director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"I got a tiny little favour to ask. If you could, you know, send a nuke flying towards my tower—"

" _What?_ "

"—not _at_ my tower, mind you, just _towards_ —"

" _Have you lost your goddamn mind?_ "

"—so I could throw it through the portal and hit the motherload, that would be great. I have it on good authority that if we blow up the mothership, all these puppets will get their strings cut and drop like flies. I'm counting on you, sweetheart!"

" _Wait fucking minu_ —"

"Stark out."

Stark turned to Loki then, thrusting the sceptre in his direction, and Loki couldn't stop himself from taking a hurried step back. "Okay, listen up, Articuno. I'm gonna go catch myself a flying bomb, and throw it up to outer space. Your job is to close the portal when it's done. Not before, otherwise New York City is going to explode, and you and me with it, and not too late either, or the explosion out there," Stark gestured towards the hole in the sky, "will irradiate us all anyway. Simple enough, right? There you go, then!" And the mortal tried to hand him the sceptre once more. Loki stepped back further.

"I really think it would be unadvisable for me to—"

A groan loud enough to be heard over the Chitauri vehicles zooming past stopped him mid-sentence. Dr Erik Selvig was sitting up, with his head held in his hands, and Loki held his breath, wondering. When Thanos lost control over him, did the mind-control spells he cast through the sceptre vanish along with it, or could the sceptre still maintain the spell on its own?

The answer was rather forthcoming when Selvig opened his eyes and looked up at the travel-spell-thread, then followed it up to the portal that was pouring out enemies of Midgard in an unending cascade. "What have I done?" was the first thing he said, and Loki did not need to see the lack of unnaturally blue irises to know that this man's mind was free of influence once more.

"Hey there, Doctor… What's your name again?" Selvig abruptly turned his head, noticing them for the first time. His eyes swept over Stark without much surprise, but when he looked at Loki he screamed and scrambled back, getting dangerously close to the edge. "Woah, woah! Calm down! We're all good guys here! Right? I mean, it looks like you got hit on the head, so…"

"Who's that?" the astrophysicist shouted, pointing at Loki. Ah, so the fearful scream was not one of recognition, but more one of surprise. It was no wonder; the only thing Jötnar could do was inspire fear after all.

"What? Oh, never mind Stitch, he's here to help. Are you all right, Doctor…"

"Selvig."

"Ah, yes. You're all right, aren't you? Great! Then I'm sure you can lend me a hand!" Stark helped Selvig get back up on his feet in one swift move, and before Loki could do or say anything, Stark said "You hold onto this then," and put the sceptre in the other man's hands. How foolish could that mortal be? Who knew what could happen to anyone who had been touched by the sceptre's power! One was not supposed to handle the artefacts one had been cursed by so recklessly! Only when a few seconds had passed and nothing had happened did Loki release the breath he had been holding.

The disembodied voice that Stark called Jarvis spoke then. "Sir, I have been asked to tell you that the 'package' is underway. ETA three minutes."

Stark looked at Selvig again. "Right. Selvig, you close the portal only when Megamind here tells you to, all right?" The Doctor looked down at the weapon in his hands, comprehension dawning, then looked towards Loki suspiciously for a moment. When his eyes strayed on the Tesseract however, he seemed to make up his mind and nodded.

Stark turned to Loki then, and two metal gauntlets latched themselves onto his shoulders. The mortal was sporting the most serious expression Loki had ever seen on his face – him, the man who seemed to smirk arrogantly at every perilous situation he found himself in. It worried the god, even though he had no reason to; it should not bother him if this mortal were to die through his own recklessness, life debt or not. "Neytiri, dear, I gotta go. Don't screw up with the portal, and fingers crossed that I don't get to meet Eywa today!" His face broke into a smile then, and he had the gall to wink before flying off at high speed. Loki closed his eyes and sighed in defeat. And people were calling _him_ crazy!

When he lifted his eyelids again, Selvig was standing before him, sceptre pointed towards him as if ready to defend himself with it. The mortal's eyes were still clear, so this was all his own doing. The suspicion in his gaze made Loki wonder if the man truly did not know who he was. Perhaps it was merely an unconscious inkling.

Loki walked towards the barrier surrounding the Tesseract, with as much dignity as he could muster in his state. He locked his knees once he arrived, and wished he could do all this sitting instead of standing. "Place the point of the sceptre here," he said, pointing. Selvig hesitated a moment, but Iron Man vouching for him must have been enough, for the mortal slowly did as he said. "Good. When I tell you to, thrust the sceptre in with all the force you can muster and push the Tesseract aside. Don't do it before I tell you, though. Stark said to coordinate with his 'nuke'."

"What? They're sending a nuclear bomb? Have they completely lost their minds?" In his bewilderment, Selvig scraped the sceptre's point along the barrier, causing a shower of sparks.

"Director Fury seemed to share your sentiment."

Selvig opened his mouth to say something, but whatever it was was cut short by Stark and a humongous missile flying straight passed the tower and directly into the portal. Selvig obviously saw that as his cue; he pushed the sceptre through the barrier, and Loki was barely in time to grab the man's arm to try and stop his momentum. "Wait, you fool! Don't close it now!" The barrier's magic was crackling around the golden staff and the sceptre's point was only an inch or so away from the sparkling blue cube.

They both looked up at the portal when Chitauri started to fall from the sky, inert. Beyond the gateway space was illuminated to a point where nothing could be seen anymore but fire and light. Loki was starting to feel faint again, and Stark was yet nowhere to be seen.

"I have to close it now—" Selvig started to say, and Loki held onto the mortal tighter – though if it was to stop him or if it was to help himself stand, he could not say. He could only mumble "No" in a voice that was failing him, and darkness surrounded his vision when the light in the sky only grew. He did not know why, but one thing was certain: he could not let Stark die out there. For some mysterious reason he whole-heartedly believed that.

"I'm sorry, I have to." Selvig pushed the Tesseract then, and the spell-thread broke. Loki fell to his knees, face still upturned, yet his eyes were unfocused and he could not see. Just before the darkness claimed him for good he remembered Fate's words: _you are now one soul_. He finally understood her meaning; only now it was too late. He was gone even before he hit the ground.

* * *

Gosh, Loki is fainting a lot today, poor dear XD So, readers of mine, care to share your thoughts?

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	3. Chapter 3

Helooooo! Here I am with an update, and this time it's a Tony POV! We start out with a few lines from the film again, which I interpret a bit differently – again – and the rest, well… The rest stems from my crazy story idea ;) I hope you'll like it!

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _"I'm sorry, I have to." Selvig pushed the Tesseract then, and the spell-thread broke. Loki fell to his knees, face still upturned, yet his eyes were unfocused and he could not see. Just before the darkness claimed him for good he remembered Fate's words:_ you are now one soul _. He finally understood her meaning; only now it was too late. He was gone even before he hit the ground._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 3**

"Waaah!" The air that rushed into his lungs almost felt burningly hot, the azure sky was so bright, and yet they were the best air and the most beautiful sky he had ever taken in, even if he couldn't remember why. Suddenly the Hulk – yes, that was the Hulk, no doubt about it – bellowed so hard the earth trembled, and his whole body jerked inside the inert suit. "What the hell! What just happened?" That was when he noticed Captain America kneeling beside him, looking utterly relieved. Ah, right. He almost died in outer space. "Please tell me nobody kissed me."

Rogers breathed heavily and looked away, probably trying not to laugh. He would bet his fortune that the old man was thinking that he would never understand how people thought nowadays. Unless he was looking away because someone _had_ kissed him! Or tried to revive him using their mouth, whatever. "We won," was all the super soldier said, but it was enough.

Tony sighed in relief. Thank. Fucking. God! "All right! Hey! All right, good job guys! Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just," his voice wavered, he was so exhausted, "take a day." And he was hungry, too. So hungry he could probably eat a whole cow or something. "You ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is but I want to try it."

Thor hadn't said a word up until now – stoic alien warrior and all that shtick – but he looked pretty serious when he said: "We're not finished yet."

It took Tony a second to understand what he could possibly mean; the Chitauri were dead, the portal was closed, what else was there? But then he remembered a certain blue skinned guy that the others might not know had helped him, or how much; Thor and Selvig were the only ones who saw him help with the portal after all. Tony was the only one, besides J.A.R.V.I.S., who knew the whole story.

Well, maybe not. He didn't know what the fuck happened, with Loki screaming like someone was digging his heart out with a spoon and turning blue and all that, and why the hell that would make the guy change his mind about the whole invasion spiel, but it had. And he had helped stop what he'd started, even if he hadn't exactly fought beside them – not that he looked like he could have in that state, mind you. Still, they owed him for the help, right? "Then shawarma after," he decided.

Thor and Rogers helped him stand up, and luckily J.A.R.V.I.S. had reinitialised the battered suit by then, because he didn't think he could have walked by himself if he hadn't worn it. And he sure as hell didn't want to be carried by any of these burly guys. He was so weary he could end up sleeping while he walked. The day had been so long; there was the fighting, and the almost dying at Loki's hands – he hadn't forgot about the whole chocking part; his throat still felt kind of sore –, the hand crushing and energy zapping ordeal – he wondered if the skin contact hadn't stolen some of his life force or something, he had felt so feverish after that –, then fighting Chitauri and taking a nuke into space, and almost dying again. Shit, he could use a drink right now.

The trek towards Stark tower was excruciatingly slow, and so many people were getting out of their hiding places and cheering them when they saw them. Tony tried to smile and not look as dead on his feet as he felt, but he knew he was utterly failing. He hoped that the few flashes he saw were not of any pictures that would end up in tomorrow's papers. At least the people were keeping their distance; every time someone got too close the Hulk would growl in a pretty scary way.

"I think you can, you know, power down now, buddy," he said to him, but he only got a menacing glare and a huff in response. "Okay, or not, just a suggestion. It's just that there's no way you're gonna fit in an elevator, is all." And that didn't get any response at all.

His tower was only a quarter of a mile away now, and when he looked up at it he wished he hadn't. "Son of a bitch!" His tower! His brand-new tower! The state of it! God damn it! Someone was going to pay for this! His beautiful, state of the art tower! They had even ripped his name off it, only the A was left! Only the A… Hah bloody hah! Like an A for Avengers. Somebody sure was going to write some drivel about how all this must have been destined to be, he was sure of it. Pepper was going to have a field day!

Shit! Pepper! He had totally forgotten to call her! Oh, this was bad! Especially when she learned he had kind of asked for a nuke and brought it out to space on his back, on purpose. He was going to get an earful about his recklessness, and how she was sick of it, and of the worrying… It wasn't the first time she complained, after all. And, okay, maybe it would be justified for today, but still! He was Iron Man! It was to be expected, right? Not that you'd expect an alien invasion.

The glass of the lobby doors of his tower crunched under the suit's feet, and Tony clenched his teeth in annoyance. His tower! He shook his head to clear it, and regretted it immediately – geez, that hurt! Okay, he just had to take things slow. First, getting to the roof. The elevator pinged on arrival, and the doors opened invitingly.

"Hey, big guy! How about now? Ready to bring Banner back?"

The Hulk stared down at him for a few seconds, his hair brushing the ceiling, and just when Tony thought nothing was going to happen, a pair of giant eyes slowly closed and the heavy body fell backwards, fissuring the marble floor. Tony took a deep breath. The lobby had already been in ruins, a little more didn't change anything. The huge green mass shrunk amazingly fast, and one blink of an eye later, a pretty much naked Bruce Banner was laying on the ground.

"Ooookay. Say, Thor, buddy, do you really need that cape right now or do you think you could lend it for a sec'?" While the Asgardian was unclasping said cape, Banner was sitting up, one hand held to his head while the other tried to cover his crotch with the remnants of Hulk's pants. Thor handed him his cape, and with a mumbled 'thank you', the doctor wrapped the cloth around him as if it was some fancy toga.

"Up we go!" Tony said, and the elevator doors closed behind them. "You all right, Brucey?"

Banner glared at him. "What do you think?"

"I think we're gonna let you out in my penthouse so that you can go raid my closet. I'm sure there are at least some shirts, and sweat pants, and maybe flip flops that will suit you. J.A.R.V.I.S. will lead the way."

"Oh." That at least seemed to lift the man's mood somewhat. "Thanks."

"Yep. No problem." The elevator doors opened just then, and Bruce stepped out, cape-toga half trailing on the floor behind him.

The next time the doors opened, it was to the gravelled roof and the early evening breeze. The difference with less than an hour before was staggering; the silence surrounding the top of the tower was deafening. Or not.

"I think you should wait before shooting him," came a female voice from above. Uh oh. Not good, that. Both Thor and him leapt up the last few yards, Thor with his superhuman strength, and Tony with his last working repulsor, while a second voice answered: "I don't give a shit! I can shoot him in the face if I want!"

Clearly that turned out to be false, as Thor immediately grabbed Barton by the collar and slammed him into the ground. Romanoff watched on, unblinking, when Thor put his magic hammer on the archer's chest, pinning him down indefinitely, and walked away like it was the most natural thing in the world. And maybe it was, on Asgard. Thor then kneeled next to Loki's unconscious body.

"Brother!" he said, yet seemed reluctant to touch him.

"So it is him," Natalie – no, Natasha – said.

"Told you," Barton grunted from the other end of the roof.

Rogers had made his way up by then and was looking at Loki with wide eyes, gaping. As if he hadn't fought uglier aliens all day, for God's sake! How could a blue-skinned guy still shock anyone now? Tony noticed that Selvig was nowhere to be seen, and he hoped that meant the man had found a safe way down.

"Brother!" Thor said again, but the prone body didn't stir. Wait, the guy wasn't dead, right? Tony knelt beside him as well. That was… breathing, right? That infinitely small chest movement? Fuck, why was nobody checking for a pulse, or something? He folded the gauntlet of his right hand back and moved two fingers towards a cerulean pulse-point.

"Man of Iron! You should not—"

Tony didn't care what he should not do; he touched the frighteningly cold skin. Fuck, how could he be this cold already? It couldn't have been much more than fifteen minutes! Was it the wind? Wait. Wait a sec'! Was that a pulse? How— Oh, right, alien. They might not have the same body temperature. Even though earlier, when his skin had still been, well, human-ish, Loki had been way warmer. Did that mean that—

Suddenly the body beneath him heaved up and let out a loud gasp. Loki's eyes opened wide and unseeing, and a frantic hand grasped his metal-covered forearm and squeezed, his muscles being compressed beneath. _Fuck, not again!_

"Hey, hey! Calm down, Sonic! It's just me: the most handsome guy you'll ever see!" He even added his most photogenic smile to it, even though the flair of pain in his arm made it difficult. That was going to bruise, all right!

Loki's whole body stiffened, and Tony could see the exact moment those ruby-red eyes focused on his face. The alien sighed and let his head fall back unto the gravel, squinting up at the darkening sky. "What a bleak existence I have before me then."

Barton laughed from his pinned down position, the arsehole. "Ouch! That's the second time today! You wound me!" Tony said.

Loki let go of him then. "Wouldn't 'third time' be more accurate, in that case?"

Tony doubted the guy knew he had hurt his arm just then. "What do you mea— Oh, yeah." His left hand. He had kind of forgotten about that. Well, not really, it was pulsing continuously and he couldn't really move his fingers much. Still, strangely enough he didn't really feel all that angry about it. It sucked, of course. But somehow, he couldn't really blame Loki, because at the time the guy had looked like he was dying. He couldn't be expected to remember not to crush a poor engineer's precious hands in that situation.

"Someone mind explaining what's happening here?" Rogers was in Captain America mode again, with a stiff posture and a frown on his face. "Stark?"

"Hey! Why me? Why d'you expect _me_ to know?" Everyone, even Loki, and even Barton from his awkward position, looked at him, unimpressed. "Okay. All right, I get it. I'm used to it. When something's not right, ask Tony how come. Fine!" he grumbled. It wasn't his fault everything always went to shit around him! He just… attracted trouble! It was all his irresistible charm's fault, no doubt.

He looked back at Loki, still laying on the ground, breathing deeply. "Hey! You think you can stand up? The gravel can't be comfortable."

The alien's stare was indecipherable. "I don't know," he replied in an even voice, even though he probably hated having to say it.

It couldn't be easy, being so vulnerable in front of your enemies. Or former enemies? Tony wasn't sure how he should view this. Sure, Loki had helped, but how much of that came from regret and how much from the necessity to not get killed by his former allies? Much more of the latter, probably.

"Well, how about we try to get you up, then?" Tony took hold of one green and black covered arm and expected Thor to do the same, but nothing happen. "Hello? Earth to Asgard! Thor, buddy, a hand!" Still Thor hesitated, and some sort of battle of wills seemed to occur inside the glares the two brothers were throwing each other. Loki ended up looking away, and Thor took hold of his other arm. Together they had the blue-skinned alien on his feet in less than a second, but when his knees faltered, he wrenched his arm out of Thor's grasp and leaned against Tony instead. Which, yeah, weird! Especially with all the strange looks he was getting now.

"Uuuhm. Yeah. So. Er… Road Runner here—"

"Road… Runner?" Rogers said, puzzled. Right. There were now two – no, three, with Loki – people who wouldn't understand any of his clever comparisons and cute nicknames. Where was the fun in that? He should organise some sort of crash course for aliens and out of time super soldiers. Then at least he wouldn't have to restrict himself.

"Ignore Stark and his tasteless cultural references," Romanoff drawled.

"Tasteless? _Tasteless_? There is nothing tasteless about—"

"Man of Iron. You were explaining the state my brother is in."

"The state? You say that as if it was my fault!" Thor just looked at him… stoically again, but the little twitch in the hammer-hand didn't really bode well.

"Indeed, my current state is Anthony Stark's fault," Loki thought funny to add, the arsehole. Thor's hand curled into a fist. Great, now Thor probably wanted to play whack-a-mole with Tony's head! Thank you, blue-arsed bastard! "And it is very fortunate for all of you. And for me." Wait, what? It was? But he didn't do anything! Sure, he had somehow – thank you, Arc reactor, love of my life! – resisted the sceptre-mind-control thing, but other than that, he didn't do anything. "It was Stark's… influence that saved me from madness."

"Hey, I thought we had agreed that I… What was it again?"

"Appealed to my humanity," Loki answered with a smirk. Tony was starting to get used to that, and couldn't stop from smirking in return.

"Yes, with my irresistible boyish charm."

"Huh." Loki looked pensive for a moment. "I didn't know mortals had such a different definition for the word 'irresistible'."

Tony could only gape at the man holding onto him. This was the third time! The third bloody time! And Barton was laughing in the background too. He couldn't believe this was actually his life. "Geez! That's the third time you've crushed my ego! Is it one of your life goals or something?"

"It wasn't yet, but I'll be sure to add it to the list."

"Okay, I got it! You're just mean!"

"Jesus, you two sound like an awkward high-school romance!" Natasha said, pinching the bridge of her nose. Oh. They were annoying the Black Widow after a long day of alien killing. Not good, that. "And Stark, stop hitting on anything will long hair, will you?"

Okay, never mind the 'stop annoying her' idea. "Hey, I've hit on just as many short-haired people! There is no hair discrimination here!"

"No racial discrimination either, right, Stark?" Barton piped in from under the magical hammer. "They don't even need to be human."

"Well, duh! They call themselves gods, what did you expect!"

Romanoff rolled her eyes and looked away to the half-destroyed city. "Nothing when it comes to you, Stark."

"Guys! Guys! Calm down!" Rogers's voice made the silence that followed linger, and all eyes returned to Tony and Loki expectantly. "You were in the middle on an explanation?"

Tony's stomach rumbled, and God did he need a drink! And sleep. And painkillers. Time to wrap the story up. "Right. So, first, Loki was a bad guy. Then I offered him a drink – which he rudely ignored, by the way – and he tried to mind-control me but it didn't work, because I'm more of a genius than I thought and my Arc reactor is magic repellent. And then he tried to choke me, so he was hit with some divine punishment and started screaming like a banshee." Around him eyes were getting rounder and rounder, Loki's most of all. "After a while of that he asked me to take the sceptre away from him, so I did, and he fainted. I actually thought he was dead there for a while. Especially when he turned all blue. But then he woke up, told me all about the Chitauri hive-mind and stuff, and how to turn the portal off. So we came up here to do just that, but I thought of the nuke and how that would stop the invasion once and for all, so I left Loki and Selvig here to close the portal at the right moment and they did. End of story."

There was a lot of gaping going on now. And Tony felt compelled to join them when Loki cuffed him on the head and said: "This is the last time I let you tell a story involving me, Stark." Thor was the only one who wasn't frozen in shock, it seemed, as he burst out laughing and thumped Loki on the back with enough force to almost send him – and Tony – sprawling.

"Welcome back, Brother!"

"Thor… You oaf…," Loki managed to cough out, holding onto Tony's arm for dear life now.

"Er, hey guys!" came Bruce's voice from the lower level of the roof. Tony could see he had chosen the plainest T-shirt he could find – Tony didn't even remember that shirt – and he had indeed found flip-flops. Tony had kind of been joking when he said that. He really had flip-flops? "I hope you don't mind if I stay down here, I'm beat." Bruce's gaze swept over them and stopped on Tony and his new Siamese twin. When was he going to let go of his arm? "Who's tha— Is that… Loki?"

Well, at least Bruce just sounded incredulous, and not 'green'. "Yep! Great guy! Now that were all here, let's go out for shawarma!"

"Shawarma?" Barton repeated, as if he'd never heard off it. "Wait! Woah, stop! I ain't eating with a murderer!"

Tony snorted. "Funny that. Coming from an assassin."

"Hey! Don't compare me to _him_! It's not the same, and you know it! I'm only following orders!"

"Ah, yes, orders." Tony sneered at that. Fuck orders. He turned his head to look Loki in the eye. "Like, what's his name again, the guy who was giving you orders? Thanos?"

Thor's gasp was so loud it could have been heard from the street. "The Mad Titan? You went to the Mad Titan?"

Loki started growling – honest to God growling, like a rabid dog or something. "Of course not! Do you truly think me so mad?" The grip on Tony arm tightened, and he could feel more than see the metal warping under the alien fingers. Boy, was that guy regaining strength fast! "He _found_ me in the void! After I fell from the Bifrost."

Thor's eyes filled with tears in like two milliseconds flat, and with a wailed "Oh, Loki!" he was hugging the life out of his brother. Quite literally. Loki was trying to pull himself free with one arm while Thor sobbed on his shoulder, and it might have made for a cute scene if Loki wasn't still holding onto Tony with his other hand. Now Tony was almost squished between two crazy aliens, and he could do without all the long hair the wind was pushing in his face.

"Thor, my time with the Mad Titan didn't change my opinion about you."

"I am so glad, brother!"

"I doubt you would be if you understood my meaning." Some sort of comprehension seemed to dawn in Thor, because he stiffened and fell silent. "Let go of me." Thor stepped back with the face of a kicked puppy. Cold bastard wasn't he, that Loki; not that Tony didn't understand how annoying such an effusive brother must be. Well, okay, he couldn't really understand, he never had any siblings, thank God! Still, the guy was crying, couldn't Loki show a modicum of compassion?

Tony's stomach rumbled again; it was time. He didn't care what anyone else thought, he was going to get his fucking shawarma, and nobody bloody well try and stop him. "Okay, shawarma joint. Now. I'm sick of this emotional bullshit."

"If 'shwarma' is some sort of food, then I shall gladly follow you," Loki said in a tone that was unnecessarily pleasant. Tony knew the guy couldn't be as cheerful as he sounded.

"Come along then. It's not as if you have any intention of letting go of my arm anyway."

"Indeed not," was the jovial response.

"Well, okay. You're all invited to come, if you're hungry."

Tony – and Loki beside him, incidentally – stepped towards the edge of this section of the roof. Bruce was still waiting on the floor below, arms crossed and face impossible to read. Now, how were they going to get down? If Loki was truly as exhausted as he acted – though, seeing how strong his grip was, Tony wasn't sure if he believed him; then again, maybe that was like the weakest grip ever for such a being, and how frightening was that? – there was no way the ladder would be of any use.

Somewhere behind them, Barton was still sputtering. "I'm not coming anywhere with that criminal!" Natasha was trying to persuade him with arguments like 'who better than the Avengers to watch him', and it seemed like it was working. She was scary like that.

"You gonna survive if we jump? You aren't gonna break a leg, of anything?" Loki snorted, so Tony took that as a 'who do you think I am, mortal?' and stepped off the ledge, his last repulsor working overtime. The landing was still pretty bone-jarring, but Loki didn't really look worse for wear. Or _more_ worse for wear, anyway.

"Thor!" Loki called, voice loud and clear, his back still to his brother since the jump. Tony looked up to see Thor ready to come down as well. Just before he did, Loki added in a reproachful tone: "Tesseract." Thor froze, ready to leap, and turned back to the now inert machine. Right. Maybe they shouldn't leave a dangerous magical item on the roof of his tower. (His half-destroyed tower, damn it!)

Together they limped to the elevator, and after a suspicious look, Bruce joined them – even if he stayed close to the exit, with his eyes closed and a breathing exercise underway. The others could take the next ride down; the doors closed and J.A.R.V.I.S. rushed them down to the ground floor. The lobby appeared, and with it, two dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with all sorts of guns pointed at them. Among them were Fury and Hill.

"Hey! If it ain't my beloved Black Beard!" When Tony made to step out of the lift, the tension grew tenfold, and more than one finger shuddered on the triggers. "You don't mind if we get out, right? We can't stay in here forever. And the elevator needs to go up again for the other half, you know." He walked forward again, and this time the agents stepped back as one. Just enough to close the elevator doors behind them, mind you. Still, it would bring Thor down quicker, and one more Asgardian prince in the house could make this go down so much easier.

"Stark. Who is that?" Fury asked, his only visible eye twitching. Right, as if he couldn't guess.

"Doctor Bruce Banner. I think you've met. I know, he doesn't look the way he did an hour ago, but I assure y—"

"STARK! Don't fuck with me, I'm not in the mood!"

"Oh, no, I wouldn't, don't worry. Like, ever. Whatever the mood." Fury was suffering an attack of apoplexy now, and Tony would have sworn the trembling in Loki's arm meant he was trying not to laugh. Fury didn't even speak, he just pointed his own gun at Loki's head, and gestured. "Ooooh! You meant _him_! Figures. Everyone always wants to know about the blue guy! He's new! He's not very nice, but then again, neither am I, so I shouldn't criticize his sassiness." Tony looked Loki in the eye then, and blinked repeatedly. "I'm sorry for calling you a meanie earlier, honey!"

"Mmmh. I suppose that if you feed me soon, dear, I might just forgive you."

"Heard that? I got a date with an alien! So if you don't mind, Mr Cyclops, we have a shawarma joint to invade."

The elevator pinged and opened behind him, and Tony lamented not being able to see Rogers' face when he became aware of the situation, but the two agents that tried to take a step back when they realised they were confronting the whole team were amusing too.

"Director Fury," Rogers said, and yep, he was definitely in Captain America mode.

"Captain. I'd appreciate it if you could tell Stark to hand over the prisoner."

Tony put on his most innocent face. "What prisoner?"

"If you think I wouldn't recognise Loki from a mile away, even disguised—"

"What! So you knew who he was all along?" Tony dramatically put a hand on his heart, and took on a sad expression. "I'm hurt, Nick. Really hurt. Like shrapnel in my heart, hurt, and I don't think I can ever get over it. I'm sorry, babe, but we're over. I'm breaking up with you for good."

"Okay, that's it, I'm done talking with you, Stark." He gestured to his minions. "Take the prisoner away."

Loki's hand tightened like a vice around his arm again, and Tony did his best not to grimace. "Woah, woah, woah! You're not taking him anywhere! I won't let him eat shawarma with you instead of me!"

"Stark." Rogers' voice was as stern as they came, and Tony couldn't believe the Capsicle was turning against him! He was supposed to be a good and soft hearted guy, and Loki's sob story – being kidnapped by this Thanos dude and forced to invade an innocent planet but helping humanity in the end – should totally have gotten Captain America on his side!

Of course, it was not as if Tony thought Loki was suddenly good or anything; he didn't know anything about him after all. And 'God of Mischief' was not a title you got because you were such an angel. So no, the guy definitely wasn't good, but maybe he wasn't too bad either, all things considered. And anyway, he was all weak and blue right now. Like a wet and sick alien puppy. It was no wonder that Tony felt compelled to help him, right?

Rogers was talking again, and Tony realised him must have missed quite a piece of the lecture. "… stopped turning everything into a joke and just explained the situation, we wouldn't all be standing here, wasting our time!"

"Tetchy when you're hungry, I see." Tony could feel the glare burning his scalp. "All right, all right! So, Loki is coming with us, because he isn't such a bad guy. He was the one who told me about the Chitauri and the effects the nuke would have, and how to close the portal, so he kind of helped defeat his own army. Who turned out to not be _his_ army at all, by the way. He was, like, kidnapped and brainwashed by a guy named Thanos and sent to invade Earth."

He already knew Fury didn't believe a word he'd said even before the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. opened his mouth. "Right. It looks more like you are the one who has been brainwashed."

"Nope. Loki tried the whole mind control thing, but it didn't work because my Arc reactor repels magic." Or so he thought, anyway. Tony hoped it didn't mean his Arc reactor had some magical element in it, because that would just be fucked up – though it could be interesting, when he thought about it. He'd have to research it. Preferably with a magic expert close at hand.

Behind him, Rogers sighed. "Stark, you are not really helping, here."

"Well, then! How about you be a good little team leader and deal with the guy with the gun!"

Without a word, Rogers went all Captain America, with his shield held aloft, and he shouldered passed armed men to stand between Fury and Tony – or rather what seemed to be becoming a concerningly permanent Tony-Loki duo. Wouldn't Thor be more apt at holding a heavy god-alien up? Then again, there was the whole 'you're not my brother' thing going on, so, what? Tony had inherited the role of guardian? He certainly hoped that didn't make anything – or worse, anyone – his responsibility!

Tony wasn't really listening to Rogers' speech, but he caught some things like Loki being the one brainwashed and that Thor could vouch for his character, or that Loki helping defeat the Chitauri should be considerable doubt enough not to incarcerate him without reason, or that there was no one better than the Avengers to keep an eye on him anyway – the underlying 'S.H.I.E.L.D. had its chance and fucked up' was clearly hidden in his tone – and Tony had to admit that Captain America really knew how to get things going his way. That goody-two-shoes façade did wonders, and the fact that he was almost everybody's childhood hero clearly helped too. Because at the end of day, even Fury had to back down when confronted with the holy wisdom of Saint Rogers.

"Fine!" Fury grumbled, and Tony got a feeling he agreed to all this just to shut Rogers up. "You can keep your new pet, as long as all of you – and I do mean _all_ of you – don't let him out of your eyesight! Is that clear?"

A chorus of agreement – and an "N— Ouch! Yes! Fuck, Nat', stop hitting me!" from Barton – later, the lobby of Stark Tower – or 'A' Tower if the building was to be believed – was emptied of all black-clad gun-wielding agents; if you didn't count Natasha, that is. The silence that ensued was rather deafening, and even if he couldn't see them all, Tony felt that all eyes were expectedly turned towards him.

"All right then, guys and gal, let's get ourselves some shawarma!"

* * *

Gosh, I want some shawarma now too – especially if I could eat it with the Avengers :p So, what did you think? Is my Tony POV 'true to character' enough?

 _Spread the Luv_ _!_

 **LL**


	4. Chapter 4

Okay, people! Back to a Loki POV, and it's finally dinner time :)

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _"All right then, guys and gal, let's get ourselves some shawarma!"_

* * *

 **CHAPTER 4**

Curse the Norns, this was humiliating! Not being able to walk on his own or even stand, and having to lean on a mortal of all people! And this particular mortal was… his sou— No, he was not going to think about that! Why? Why was Fate so cruel? What had he done to deserve this death sentence?

Of course, he knew he had done terrible things. Trying to destroy Jötunheimr, trying to kill his adoptive brother, helping Thanos in his thirst for power – even though that was not entirely his doing – and killing innocent Midgardians in the process. And that was only in the last few years. Still, it was not as if Fate had been kind to him before; what about his heritage, the fact that his parents – adoptive parents – had lied to him all his life, and his continuous suffering in Thor's glorious shadow. Really, he did not think this death sentence was deserved!

Fate was indeed cruel, but what was done was done. It was, unfortunately, what was meant to be. He would just have to make do. He made sure his depressing thoughts did not show on his face, and leaned a little more on Stark's armoured arm while they walked out of the mortal's tower. The metal felt warm under his skin – which was probably because he was a Frost Giant. Even if he purposefully did not look at his hands, his body would not let him forget. And if he did not have the strength to walk, he definitely would not have the strength to shapeshift into his preferred Áss form.

Stark's armour creaked at every step, and Loki doubted that was part of the sleek design. He had not seen the mortal return from the portal before he felt Selvig close it – his vision had started to go black by then – and he wondered just how much damage Iron Man had sustained during those few minutes of absence. This armour had looked brand new before Stark left to collect his 'nuke'; Loki still did not know what exactly a 'nuke' was, but as it looked like it had destroyed a Chitauri mothership in a few seconds, he had to admit that mortal weaponry was more impressive than he had initially thought.

They had not made it far before Stark stopped and gasped. "I that my 'S'? As if knocking it off my tower wasn't enough, they have to leave it on my sidewalk? Talk about psychological torture!"

"Get over it, Stark. As if you didn't have enough money to build three other towers," Barton said without looking at them as he walked passed.

"Only three? You hurt me there, Katniss! I thought Shield knew everything about the contents of my accounts."

"As if I care. Where's that diner you've been talking about? The sooner we finish this stupid little excursion…"

"No need to get nasty because you're hungry! Jarvis?"

The disembodied voice answered through Stark's armour. "Left, Sir." As one the 'Avengers' – what ridiculous appellation – turned in said direction, walking around debris and cadavers, the majority of them Chitauri. Whenever they were not, though, Loki would receive accusing glares from the archer, and sad looks from Thor. Although Thor looked at him like that constantly, and it was probably more about Loki rejecting his false brother than anything else. When he thought about it, using Stark as a crutch was not so bad after all, if Thor was the alternative.

A dozen or so minutes later the voice of Jarvis announced they had arrived. Loki may not be able to judge mortal eating places as he did not know what they usually looked like, but this one did not impress him in the least. Of course, the broken glass of the windows and the dust and pieces of concrete of the wreckage littering the streets should not influence his judgement; he could still imagine what this place had looked like before. Then again, he did not know what this 'shwarma' was; perhaps it was some sort of peasant food, which might explain the design of the place.

Their feet crunched on the glass and the sound seemed loud in the uncharacteristically silent streets; a frightened middle-aged mortal peeked out of a back door, before coming out, brandishing a broom like a weapon. "What do you want?" he asked in a hostile tone.

Stark continued advancing towards a table, and with his metal boot he pulled a chair out. "There, how about you sit down?" Loki slowly lowered himself into the strange amalgamation of metal, wood and unrealistic leather, and he heard the broom-wielding mortal gasp. It looked like the Midgardian only now really _saw_ his customers and their strange accoutrements – or their obvious non-Midgardian origins.

"Who… Who are you people?"

"Hi there! I'm Tony Stark. Or Iron Man. One and the same, really. I own the brand-new tower that's just a block away. I don't know if you happened to see the alien attack that was going on just on the other side of your broken windows here, but if you did, you maybe also know that there was an awesome superhero team fighting those ugly things, and that team, that's us. We even have a catchy name and all! The Avengers. Plus one. For dinner, here. If you happen to have any shawarma. This is a shawarma place, right?"

The owner seemed at a loss for words, and Loki would not be surprised if he had not understood much of that speech – if he himself had not already known what Stark was talking about, he might not have understood either. Stark's speech patterns were one of the most curious he had ever heard after all, and perhaps other mortals had the same difficulties understanding him than Loki did.

"I'll pay triple the price for your trouble. How about that?"

"Errrm…" The man still looked uncertain, his gaze switching from face to face and lingering on Loki's before focussing on Stark once more. Loki could not see his face, but he could very well imagine the probable smile and trustworthiness displayed on it – Stark was a master negotiator, was he not? And indeed, the grip on the broom slackened, and the mortal made his decision. "All right, I'll re-open for you, then."

"Great! We'll put these tables together, and we'll take plenty of shawarma, with whatever best goes with it! You're the expert, so I'll leave that up to you. Oh, and also whatever alcohol you serve, too."

"And plenty of water, thank you," Captain America added before taking a seat next to Loki. He supposed it was meant as a way to reassure the more vulnerable members of their team – the physically weak – that he would keep an eye on their (previous) enemy and defend them in case of attack. Not that a mortal with nothing but muscles could do anything against magic if Loki was indeed inclined to incapacitate them.

A well-known and very unwelcome hand landed on the backrest of the chair on Loki's left, and he let out a frustrated sigh. There was no way he would sit here stuck between those two! "Stark," he called out, and the man turned towards him and smirked.

"What is it, darling?" Loki just gritted his teeth and glared. As if he was going to say it out loud. Especially since it appeared that he did not have to. "Hey, big guy! Thor, buddy! Sorry, that's my spot. Forgot to mention it."

"Son of Howard—"

"Nope, it's Tony! And I mean that for all of you. I'm sick of this last name bullshit. We're a team, right? Then it's first name only."

From his place at the far end of the table – as far away from Loki as he could get – Barton snorted. "Right. And since when do you remember people's first name?"

"Since always, _Clint_. I just pretend I don't because I'm an obnoxious arsehole."

Loki could not stop his lips from stretching a bit at that. "What an admirable trait."

"Thanks, honey! I'm glad you like it. And Thor, I'm serious, that's my chair. There's no way you're getting me away from a _blue alien_. You know, scientific study and all that shtick." Still Thor held onto the piece of furniture, and Loki sighed. He knew well enough how stubborn his adoptive brother could be. Stark might not be capable of luring him away.

"Okay, how about we ask Loki what he wants?" That provoked a stunned silence and snorts of disbelief. "I'm serious. He's the one primarily concerned after all. So how about it?" And Stark looked at him expectedly.

Loki raised an eyebrow. "What if I choose Barton?" Said mortal started chocking on his own saliva, and Loki's supposedly innocent expression could only transform into the very face of mischief.

"First off, it would be 'Clint', because I said first names only—"

"I thought that was only for your 'team'."

"And this table. And second, choosing Clint would be a lie, as it isn't what you _want_. Which was the question. What do you want. Remember?"

Loki let his face smoothen out again. Even though their methods were very different, Stark also had his way with words. He also knew the importance of their choice, and how to get what he wanted through their manipulation; the only difference was in their approach – while Loki now mocked and sneered, Stark smiled and jested. Similar yet opposites. Fate certainly had a sense of humour.

"So. Have you made a choice?" The mortal even had the gall to look smug. As if he did not know Loki would prefer to have none of these imbeciles near him.

"Stark," he managed to say instead of growl. He could not control his annoyance seeping through his voice, though.

Stark smirked all the wider. "Sorry, who?"

Loki closed his eyes and curled his hands into fists under the table. "Anthony."

"Nope. Uh uh. Not happening. My father called me that and… Well, there is a reason why I chose to go by Tony."

Whatever that reason was, Loki was certain it had not been produced by a joyful event – that much was clear in his voice. _Of course_ Stark would have issues with his father as well. Why was he not surprised? Ah, yes, because he knew how much Fate could not leave well enough alone. He thought only for a second about saying the name again to antagonise the mortal – that was what he usually liked to do – but he knew it would not serve his purposes here. He was better off with Stark on his side. And not only now, but for the rest of his short life.

"Tony," he said in defeat, and the manner in which the name rolled of his tongue felt like bitter surrender. Fate was probably laughing herself silly.

Stark's smile was wide and bright, genuine pleasure illuminating his features. "Okay, babe, you've convinced me! I'll sit next to you." And while Stark glared Thor down and took possession of the chair, Loki pondered Stark's strange monikers – which he understood to be normal pet names used between lovers. That Stark would use it as banter was rather ironical, and yet again Fate must find it most funny. If the mortal knew what Loki knew, he probably would not jest this way. Still, it seemed to grate on the nerves of some of the Avengers, and for Loki that was reason enough to participate in this mock wooing.

"Why, thank you, darling. How magnanimous of you."

"Magnanimous. Yep, that's me all right!" Stark quipped back. The Black Widow snorted in a most inelegant way while Stark lowered himself down into the chair, which creaked because of the Iron Man suit he was still wearing.

On his right, Rogers turned to try and catch Stark's eye. "Are you going to eat like that? It can't be comfortable."

"It would be way too complicated to take the suit off without Jarvis. And anyway, we're all looking very cool in our costumes!"

"Yeah, apart from the red-eyed demon sitting next to you!" Barton growled from the other end of the table, slumped into his seat with his arms crossed. He looked like a petulant child. He did have a point, however. Loki was still wearing his Jötunn skin; perhaps he had regained just enough strength to change that. He was about to close his eyes to concentrate on his shapeshifting when the smell of strange food reached his nostrils, and trays of this 'shwarma' arrived. His stomach rumbled, and at this point he could eat anything, even unsavoury mortal food.

Hands shot out from all angles to pick up the odd paper-covered contraptions, and Loki waited until the rush had ended before taking one of his own. Next to him there was an electronic whirring and soft clicking that bared one of Stark's hands before he too selected one of these 'shwarma'. He put it down in front of him, and held his other hand above the table, palm up. "Okay, here goes nothing." The second the gauntlet started to retract, the mortal out a loud plethora of profanities. "Holy shit! Argh! Fucking hell that hurts like a son of a bitch!"

All eyes turned towards him, then towards his purple and swollen hand, and chaos ensued. Among the 'how did you do that?' and the 'why didn't you treat it, you idiot', Doctor Banner stood up and walked over to Tony. He took hold of the injured limb and turned it this and that, pressing in some places.

"Ouch! Stop that! Do you even know what you're doing? You're not a medical doctor!"

"You definitely broke a few bones here."

"That's great, Frankenstein, but there is nothing I'm gonna do about it now. We're eating first."

"Sta— Tony, you should treat it as soon as possible! Time could be critical for the well-being of your hand!" Banner suddenly did not look as calm as he always did, and Loki felt the tension in the room rising.

He looked at the hand that he had hurt. He had not done it on purpose, but the fact that he had unknowingly broken bones… Mortal bodies were so fragile. He should feel guilt, shouldn't he? His eyes flicked up to Stark's face, and the man smiled at him, and did not say anything. He could accuse Loki for this injury; it was perfectly in his right this time. And yet it seemed Stark did not intend to say anything. How could he not? Loki would have accused his aggressor immediately if said man was sitting next to him. That silence made him feel all the guiltier, and that was a rare occurrence, for he usually ignored the victims of his actions. He had learned to do that the hard way. Now, though, he could not stop himself it seemed.

He moved his own hand – his painfully blue hand – slowly towards Stark's, leaving him time to refuse his touch, but the man did not move. The instant their skins touched, surprised silence invaded the table. Loki closed his eyes and tuned out the outrage that followed; he probed the injury with his mind, amazed by the ease with which he could penetrate the skin with his magic – especially since it was so very weak at the moment. No, this was not _his_ magic, it was Stark's innate magic that came _up_ to his hand, and except for the metallic tang of the mortal's glowing heart, that magic felt just like his own. He could shape it easily, and use it to reverse the damage of the flesh. How peculiar; yet if he thought about it, unsurprising. Stark gasped, and when Loki opened his eyes and removed his hand, the limb had returned to its normal size, and the skin had merely an almost healed yellow-green hue.

"Healing is not a branch of magic I often use, I apologise for the left-over tenderness."

"Oh." Stark was speechless for a time, looking over his hand and manipulating it. "No, it's okay. This is great, thanks!"

"It was the least I could do, considering." And he should have done better. Healing, as a form of water magic, should have come easily to him. He had been a fool to ignore his training, preferring the combat magics of earth and fire, because they were more impressive, even though they were incompatible with his elements. He just had not wanted to look weak, as healing magic was what every woman was taught. Now, though, he felt he would regret it; he was probably going to need healing magic more and more often.

Banner inspected the hand once more, amazement and disbelief painting themselves on his features. He was receiving suspicious glances form the two assassins, and Thor was crying again – probably thinking something along the lines of 'my brother is back' or other similar foolish notions. Stark batted the doctor away, and picked up his meal again, slowly unwrapping it. Loki' own bundle, when he held it in his hands, felt scalding hot; the consequences of his Jötunn skin.

Stark took his first bite and made a very comical grimace. "Oh. My. God."

Loki could not stop himself from answering: "Yes, dear?"

"Har har. Not you. Christ, if I'd known I'd have ordered pizza or something. Is it just this place or should I just never eat shawarma again?"

Rogers, who had almost finished his own, frowned at his food. "It's not that bad."

"Speak for yourself."

"I've eaten better shawarma in the past, that's true," Banner interjected. "But perhaps today isn't their best day, you know."

It was Stark's turn to frown. "Wait a sec! Weren't you vegan a few minutes ago?"

"Not really. I'm just eating less meat for practical reasons. Meat is not very good for the skin, it has a tendency to make it turn green," the doctor said with a humourless smile. "But I think today I can make an exception."

Loki stopped listening to the futile conversation, and unwrapped his 'shwarma'. He took a tentative bite that was definitely still too hot for his sensitive mouth, but he could tell that it was not really the type of food that he preferred. Whose idea was it to shred meat to pieces and cook it so long? It was better barely roasted, all red and tender inside. His now strangely sharp teeth had nothing to tear apart; this cuisine left much to be desired. Still, food was what he needed, and its form was not that important in the end, even if it was dissatisfying.

He had finished more than half of this bizarre meal when he felt a sudden surge of magic encompass his skin, tingling down from the crown of his head to his toes. Some sort of spell had just been cast, but he had not done anything! Who— No, this was his own magic signature… It couldn't be his shapeshifting, he would have recognised it, even if cast unconsciously… Loki looked back at his fingers to make sure, and indeed they were still blue. And held between them, his 'shwarma' had taken a blue tinge as well when it had completely frozen over. Oh, curse Fate, what now? He let his inedible meal fall onto the table, where it shattered in a thousand pieces.

"Woah, there! I know the taste ain't great, but there is no need to destroy the sandwich like _that_."

Loki's sigh was probably audible at the other end of the room. By Valhalla, this had been an awfully long day. "If I had had a choice, I would not have done it either." He let his hands fall back on the table. It lasted only an instant, however; ice spread over the surface and froze the water in the three closest glasses and all around the table people jerked back. Loki did not need to look down to know his chair was stuck to the floor, and frost covered his clothes.

"Uhm, could you stop that, sweetheart? You're scaring the kids."

"I'd love to, Tony dearest, I only happen not to know how. It's the first time I've been wearing my true skin for so long, and with my depleted strength and magic, I suppose some innate defence mechanism has activated."

"I believe that, at this time, my brother should not be touched. Frost Giant ice magic is very dangerous." Thor's expression was grave, undoubtedly remembering his past battles against the Jötnar. Loki bit the inside of his cheek so that he would not start a fight by insulting the golden prince of Asgard. Obviously Thor was comparing him to those brainless savages they had fought together, and Loki hated it. He hated being Jötunn, he hated—

"Frost _Giant_?" Barton eyed him in contempt. "I don't think we've got the same definition in mind, you and me."

"They are indeed giants; however, Loki is a runt. That is why he was abandoned, and the Allfather—"

Suddenly Thor fell silent, as did the rest of the party, and the only sound remaining was a loud, low rumbling that was strong enough to reverberate in Loki's head. It was only when he noticed that the eyes around him where fringed with fear that he realised the rumbling came from him; he was growling and snarling like some weak-minded beast! When he closed his mouth the sound was cut off, and tiny shards of ice fell down all around them. That… was not good. Perhaps he should endeavour to stay calm.

"And you're sure you can't, like, become… peach-coloured like us again? Would that help, or…"

"It would indeed help. I don't have the energy to shapeshift, however."

Romanoff's voice was harder than steel, while the rest of her body appeared utterly relaxed. "Perhaps you should try again."

Loki shut out the world and looked within. His connection to Yggdrasil's branches was still too frail to channel any magic along it, so his only source was the energy he produced himself; that same energy that had been depleted during that agonising fight for his soul. Furthermore, this ice magic was using small amounts of his depleted core, making the regeneration process even slower.

As an unlearnt racial spell, he should be able to activate or deactivate it easily; if only he had learned how. Perhaps it was linked to a certain organ, just like Æsir self-healing trances started with the heart – something he had had a lot of difficulty learning, perhaps because in his true form his heart was placed higher, and a shape-shifted body only changed the physical core, not the magical one. For this ice-magic, until he found where it had activated, he could not deactivate it – unless, perhaps, he overruled it with a wave of pure magical energy. Which he did not have.

Even if he managed to shapeshift, the ice spell might continue. It might even force him back to his true skin, just like the Casket of Ancient Winters had done. Still, he might as well try. Even if the ice spell remained, he would feel better if his skin was not blue. If he looked like an Áss again, he could pretend to forget, and pretend he was Loki, Prince of Asgard, instead of Loki, son of Laufey, unwanted son of a monstrous king. A late monstrous king; he had killed his biological father after all – adding patricide to his list of crimes.

Shapeshifting was not that complicated, once you learned how to use this innate skill. It was a question of imagining the form one wanted to take, and think of one's entire skin as the focal point of the magic. Strangely enough, it did not even feel like a spell, and more like a movement of the body – shapeshifting linked physical and magical so intricately that it was difficult to distinguish them from one another once it started. It was just a matter of getting it started, and the transformation would develop on its own – as long as the magical and physical energy were there to sustain it.

The lack of both was why he expected it to fail, and fail it did. He managed to start it, the familiar tingling spreading everywhere, growing in intensity, but then it faded, like the sun behind a cloud, and all was still again. He opened his eyes to blue skin and attentive gazes, and sighed. It looked like he would be stuck like this for a while yet.

* * *

What do you mean I'm keeping Loki in his Jötunn skin as long as possible because I love him in blue? XD

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	5. Chapter 5

Hello there, dear fans of mine ;) Here is the next chapter, through the eyes of my darling Tony :)

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _Strangely enough, it did not even feel like a spell, and more like a movement of the body – shapeshifting linked physical and magical so intricately that it was difficult to distinguish them from one another once it started. It was just a matter of getting it started, and the transformation would develop on its own – as long as the magical and physical energy were there to sustain it._

 _The lack of both was why he expected it to fail, and fail it did. He managed to start it, the familiar tingling spreading everywhere, growing in intensity, but then it faded, like the sun behind a cloud, and all was still again. He opened his eyes to blue skin and attentive gazes, and sighed. It looked like he would be stuck like this for a while yet._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 5**

Tony had watched, fascinated, as Loki's skin rippled and blurred, cerulean ridges smoothing out and whitening, but it suddenly stopped and reverted back. Once it did, he caught himself thinking it was a very nice colour. In his opinion, blue skin was the coolest colour out there for characters of fictions; and outside of fiction, it was pretty sweet too. Now, had Loki been female, Tony might already have gone all out, like in the height of his playboy days – enemy or not, and ongoing relationship with Pepper or not. Not that he would have tried to actually get a female-blue-skinned-crazy-alien in his bed, per se, but he sure would have flirted as if his life depended on it.

Loki was male, however, and, well… It wasn't as if he had anything against gays or anything. It just wasn't his cup of tea. Not that he'd tried or something, but this wasn't the 'you don't know unless you try' kind of thing, right? Sure, he could tell Loki was a really handsome guy – he had an alien beauty that tended towards freaking perfection, the blessed bastard! But he was a guy, so Tony kept his flirting to a minimum, and left it in the 'joking' area alone.

"I'm guessing you're stuck like this, then, luv. That sucks." Loki sighed, looking rather glum. Tony would be too if everything he touched turned into an ice pop. Unless it was ice pops you craved, that is. It sure wasn't great for non-frozen stuff, though.

An awkward silence had taken over the table, and that just wouldn't do. They had saved Earth today, for God's sake! "Soooo, you're some kind of Ice Queen?" he said, and geez, could he sound any stupider? Well, in for a dime and all that! "You're like the White Witch, escaped from Narnia."

Barton – no, Clint, first names, his own rules – snorted and answered: "Ha, yeah, straight out of the closet, no doubt about it!"

"Now, now, Legolas! No need to be jealous! You'll summon the courage to do the same, I'm sure." The S.H.I.E.L.D. archer actually growled at that, and Tony smirked shark-like. "And it's called The Lion, the Witch and the _Wardrobe_ , by the way." Bar— Clint had so walked straight into that one.

"References, Stark," Natasha reprimanded; defending her boyfriend, no doubt.

"Who cares if nobody understands? Let me have some fun here! It's not as if you sorry lot were talking among yourselves or anything. I'm kinda feeling compelled to fill in the silence. It's one of my specialities after all."

"I like silence, Stark. Ever thought about that?" Tony had opened his mouth to protest, but the redhead continued. "How about you help your new pet alien over there?"

Tony looked to his right and saw Loki poke the pieces of his shattered shawarma, like a pouting little kid. A hungry pouting little kid, if Thor's appetite was anything to go by where these 'immortals' were concerned. "Uhm, okay. How about…" He picked up one of the bags of French fries and an unused fork, "… you try this. Perhaps if you don't touch it directly…"

Loki picked up the fork, but before he could even skewer one of the fries with it, the whole thing was covered in icicles. "Okay, maybe not." He could hit his head against the table: metal was a conductor. Not that it would have changed much had it been made of anything else, if the frost creeping along the wood was anything to go by. Still, he might have tried chopsticks next if there had been any.

Now, how could— Oh. That might work. Still, that was kind of embarrassing. But when had he shirked away from anything because it was _embarrassing_? He was Tony fucking Stark, and he could do this as if he did it every day, as if it was the most natural thing in the world!

"Hey, you've never eaten French fries, right?"

"…No," was Loki's delayed answer.

"Then I'm thinking, first sans anything, then mayo, then ketchup, and you tell me which one you prefer." He picked up one of the longest fries at the very edge, with only the tips of his finger, and held it in front of Loki's mouth. The bastard just blinked instead of parting his lips, and Tony felt his impassable face betraying him, heating without his consent. _Come on_ , he pleaded with his eyes, and finally the mouth opened. He quickly jerked his fingers back. There, one successful food delivery.

Loki slowly munched the fried potato down; it looked like the inside of his mouth was not frozen solid. Before the alien could perhaps protest, Tony swiped up another one of the fries, dipped it liberally in mayonnaise and held it in front on those blue lips again, without a word. If Loki didn't like fries, well, too bad for him. He should be happy that someone was willing to feed him anything.

The next two fries went in smoothly enough, and Tony did his best to ignore the fake retching sounds Clint-the-Jerk was making. "So…," he hesitated a second, almost adding a sarcastic endearment, but deciding against it, given the 'feeding you with my fingers' situation going on. No need to add any more fuel to the fire. "Have you decided which one you prefer?"

"The last one was fine."

Wow, such enthusiasm! And such a thankful expression too! Geez, as if Tony liked doing this! The guy could at least show some gratefulness, right? Still, Tony continued feeding Loki ketchup covered fries one by one, taking one for himself from time to time – it was way better than the shawarma anyway.

The next piece was a bit short, and he got ketchup on his fingers when he dipped it. Preoccupied by that – _stupid_ – he didn't pay enough attention and his skin grazed ice-cold lips. He jerked them back immediately, of course, but the damage was done. He could feel them tingling something fierce, and he stuck them in his mouth to rid them of the tomato sauce so he could assess the damage. The soft conversation that had started between Ro— Steve and Bruce stopped, and all eyes turned to him with concern.

Among them Loki seemed the most distraught of all, his blood-red eyes wide. His hand moved as if to take hold of Tony's, but yanked it back an instant later. "Are you all right?"

Tony looked at his fingers, but there was nothing to see. No redness or anything, and he didn't feel anything. No, he did feel _something_ : he felt normal. He prodded the tips with his other hand, but everything was fine. "Er, I'm fine. Maybe it's just your hands that have the ice voodoo thing."

Loki frowned. "No, it covers my whole skin, there is no doubt about it."

"Well, maybe it stopped." Loki just quirked and eyebrow and touched the table, new crystals forming immediately. "Okay, well maybe I didn't touch it long enough."

"That is not possible, Son of Howa—", Thor started to say.

"Tony."

"… Tony. The effects are instantaneous."

"Well, maybe it's not the… spell you thought it was, then." He would have crossed his arms if his suit hadn't made that uncomfortable. Who cared why the ice thing didn't work on people – if the touch was very short, at least; it didn't work and that was good enough for him.

Thor pursed his lips, and suddenly bent over the table and touched a finger to Loki's face for a fraction of a second. He grimaced but didn't cry out, even though the tip of his finger, that he proceeded to show off, was purple and covered in ice crystals. Was that frostbitten? That was fucking scary!

Next to him, Loki's chair skidded across the iced floor when the alien stood up, outraged. "You stupid, idiotic oaf! You of all people should know not to touch me! What in Yggdrasil's name were you thinking! Moron!"

Now Thor stood up, his usually loud voice sounding strangely soft. "I was proving a point. The curse is still active, and if… Tony truly touched your skin, he should be injured as well. Yet he is not."

The unspoken 'explain' hung heavy in the air, and Tony's gaze ping-ponged from left to right, keeping an eye on the two dangerous beings standing on either side of him, tension rising. He sure felt small and insignificant, just sitting there. "Guys! Guys, sit down, come on. Let's keep this civil, okay? No family feuds during dinner, that's the rule."

Thor was the first to sit down, and after a bout of frowning, Loki grabbed his chair and sat back down too, clearly unhappy. "So, I definitely touched you. So was it a short mishap in the magic or…"

"The ice magic hasn't dwindled, even for an instant."

"Okay." Then Tony did the craziest thing he had ever done. Or maybe not, he had done a lot of crazy things lately. Like flying into space with a nuke on his back, or vouching for the guy who had been his enemy only minutes before. Still, this was pretty crazy too.

He grabbed Loki's hand, and held on. Loki gasped and tried to pull back his hand, but Tony just followed the movement. It was cold. Like super cold, hand in the freezer cold, but it was not _burning_ him with it. He had a feeling that he could keep this up forever and not be hurt at all – contrary to really sticking your hand in a freezer. He let go and showed his hand, palm up, to the rest of the table. Thor especially looked at it in awe. "How?" the Asgardian said, bewildered.

Tony tapped his Arc reactor. "Maybe it's my magic repelling ability again."

And suddenly he had Thor's hand flat on his suit's chest plate. "I do not feel any protection spells coming from that artefact."

Loki snorted. "As if _you_ would recognise one even if it was thrown at your face."

Thor had either ignored that quip or not even listened, as he was still frowning at the Arc reactor, deep in thought. "Is this truly magical?" he wondered.

"It is and it isn't. It has the same capabilities as raw wild magic, but it has not been drawn from Yggdrasil."

"I don't know what you two geezers are going on about, but I created this awesome little piece of tech. Please don't besmirch it with your talks of alien mojo." And the two – royal – bastards royally ignored him.

"How does raw magic stop a well-crafted spell?"

"Oh, it could, theoretically, if it had enough force. Only the artefact is truly imbued with it though, not Stark's skin."

"Hey, babe, we had agreed on you calling me by my first name." Loki's answering silence was oh so encouraging. "Okay, so if it ain't my Arc reactor, are you telling me I'm the magic repelling one?"

Loki smirked, obviously amused. Yeah, sure, mock his ignorance on a stupid subject like _magic_. "No, you are definitely not magic resistant."

"Well then what the fuck, dude? What is this shit?"

"I don't know."

Then the strangest thing happened. Both Tony and Thor said "Liar!" at the same time, and Tony was pretty sure that Loki blanched – even though in this case it was just becoming a little less blue. Tony didn't even know how he knew Loki had lied. He was somehow completely certain he was right, though; he'd even stake his life on it.

"Loki!" Thor said, and his voice sounded suddenly menacing.

"I can't explain right now!"

"LOKI!" Thor bellowed.

"Sál fróðleikr!" Loki yelled in response, almost sounding panicky in Tony's ears – even though he had no idea what had been said, and really, how unjust was that? He was the concerned party here!

Thor looked like he had just been hit in the face with his own hammer, and Tony felt his stomach sink all the way down to his toes. That couldn't be good. No, it looked bloody well awful. "What is it? What does it mean?" But he was ignored. Again. Fuck them!

"Are you certain?"

Loki sounded very gloomy when he answered: "Quite."

"How can you be certain?" Thor seemed extremely sceptical, so maybe it wasn't whatever Loki had said it was.

"I just know! And how else do you explain this?" A blue-skinned hand grabbed Tony's and held it up for emphasis.

"Even so, claiming it is So—"

"Don't!" Loki practically screamed, interrupting his brother. Quieter, he said: "Please! Not now!"

"But surely—"

"Later, I promise."

And while those two exchanged glances full of some sort of understanding Tony definitely wasn't part of, his eyes met those of the other Avengers – who, contrary to him, had all finished eating, and were watching this little alien soap opera unfold with either puzzlement or glee. Rog— _Steve_ cleared his throat.

"Perhaps it's time to retire?"

Well, Tony wouldn't need to be told that twice! He immediately sprung up – or unfolded from his chair as quickly as his energy-deprived suit permitted – and spread his arms. It was only then that he realised one hand was still trapped in Loki's grasp. Who was still not letting him go. Okay… Whatever. "Yes, great idea, you're all invited to Stark Tower! Fury did say we should all keep an eye on dear Loki here, after all. So it's sleep-over time! We can even do a pyjama party!"

Apart from a few grumbles from Clint that were promptly silenced by Natasha's look, his tirade was only met by scraping chairs. He was about to ask J.A.R.V.I.S. to directly make over an outrageous amount of money to the joint owner, when he felt his hand, then his whole arm tingle, and a wave of dizziness swept over him. His Arc reactor flickered once, and he held his breath until its light remained steady again. He really needed to put a new one in there ASAP.

He looked over at Loki and froze when his eyes met emerald ones. Wow, he didn't remember them being _so_ green! And geez, after the blue skin that white seemed purer than any everlasting snow he had ever seen!

"Okay, Snow White… Looks like you're feeling better!"

"Yes, it would seem so."

"So you can walk on your own, then?"

"I certainly hope so." And even if he moved slowly and with obvious difficulty, he managed to get to the destroyed glass doors. And that's how they continued on towards the tower, with Loki in front, setting this very slow pace, and Tony on his heels, in case he collapsed again or something. Or _he_ might collapse himself, if this exhaustion was anything to go by. Thank God – no, wait, thank himself – for his Iron Man suit.

The streets were eerily gloomy; there was no electric light to be seen, except for all the people roaming around, waving flashlights and smartphones. It looked like either the police had lifted the blockade, or people had found ways around it so that they could go back to their property and inspect the damage. At least all the Chitauri corpses were gone – S.H.I.E.L.D. had certainly cleaned that up quickly.

They were only halfway there, and some Avengers – AKA Clint – where sighing at the sluggish pace. "Some of you can go ahead, if you want. I'm sure Thor and me can keep an eye on him on our own for ten minutes."

"Yeah, right!" Clint scoffed. "Leave the bastard with you two sympathisers! No way in hell, man!"

"Okay, suit yourself. Hey, J.A.R.V.I.S., order a bunch of pepperoni pizzas, will you? I'm still hungry."

"Of course, Sir."

When they finally arrived in his penthouse, the pizza boxes were stacked on the bar, and tarp covered the few missing windows that alien weapons had destroyed. There were even scorch marks on the wall, right next to the elevator. Something moved in a darkened corner; the electrical whirring identified it as Dum-E – he must have been sent by J.A.R.V.I.S. to clean up. Tony had made him mobile enough to move around the tower if necessary.

"So, people! I got a few guest rooms, but not that many so you're gonna have to share. J.A.R.V.I.S. can tell you were to go if you wanna get some shut-eye. There's pizza for the hungry, and if your thirsty I've got alcohol enough. Mi casa, su casa, and all that."

He walked over to the bar, took two pizza boxes and thrust them towards the two aliens who seemed to be exchanging a conversation with mere glances again. Thor took his without hesitation, but Loki looked rather forbidding; Tony just pushed the cardboard against his chest until he finally accepted it.

He then got himself one and walked over to a couch. "Okay, J.A.R.V.', get me out of this." The suit started to retract, whining and screeching, and the moment it released his legs he collapsed onto the couch, hopefully in a controlled-looking manner. The suit awkwardly hovered away and crumpled against the wall. Tony took off his bracelets and put them on the coffee table. He then leaned back, with his pizza box on his lap, and a slice in his hand.

The rest of the party had not moved, and was watching him eat with varying expressions. "Come on people, these pepperoni pizza's need to be gone. Capsicle— Steve, you sure you don't want one?"

"Er, no thank you. I'm good."

"All right. If no one else wants any, it's up to Thor to eat them all. I heard your appetite is legendary among us mortals."

Thor had sat down on the couch, his hammer next to him, and had already eaten half of his pizza by then. "I shall gladly eat all of your flattened bread, Tony."

"Great! Hey, honey, come sit down." Tony patted the seat next to him. After rolling his eyes in obvious protest, Loki moved towards the couch and sat on the very edge, still holding the cardboard box as if it was some sort of poisoned gift.

The others started to move away, Steve and Bruce together, following J.A.R.V.I.S.'s instructions. Natasha moved to the bar and rifled through the cabinets there, probably stealing his most precious liquors. And Clint… Clint just stood there, glaring at Loki.

"Come on, dude!" Tony said between two bites. "You don't need to follow him around all the time. He won't suddenly up and leave! Right?"

"I cannot leave even if I wanted to."

"See, nothing to worry about." Clint, however, didn't move an inch, and his eyebrows merely crept towards each other. "Okay, let's do this. J.A.R.V.', get a visual of Loki on Clint's phone. That way he can 'keep an eye' on him all he wants, even from his bed or something."

"It is done, Sir."

"There you go, then."

Clint took his phone out of one of his pockets and scrutinized the screen. He grunted in what must have been satisfaction, because he simply left without a word, eyes glued to the piece of supposedly advanced technology created by S.H.I.E.L.D. – what a joke! Natasha left soon after with glasses and a crystal pitcher filled with clear liquid, which Tony recognised as his best vodka; she could take that, he was more of a Scotch guy anyway.

Now Tony was alone with two alien not-really-brothers-but-still-obviously-brothers who didn't speak to each other, and God was this weird. He chewed his pizza a bit quicker. Maybe he could use exhaustion as an excuse to flee – it was not as if it was untrue – and then these two could resolve their problems in private. Tony didn't want to be caught in the middle of a family drama.

He was just wondering if he should take his pizza with him and retire to his bedroom, when Thor looked at him with the most serious expression he had ever seen on his face. "Friend Tony," the blond said, and that clearly meant trouble. Was it too late to flee now? " _We_ ," he continued, throwing a warning gaze at Loki, "need to speak with you about a most serious matter." Well, shit.

* * *

Eating pepperoni pizza; I just had to put it in there XD Next time Tony will get the 'big reveal' :p

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**

PS: As for 'sál fróðleikr', do excuse my broken Old Norse, I'm only Google-learned XD But I'm not gonna tell you what it's supposed to mean; Tony doesn't know, but you can probably infer the meaning from the previous chapters ;)


	6. Chapter 6

I hope there aren't any Norse mythology experts reading this, because I may have borrowed some stuff and completely 'F'ed it up to suit my little story – may the Norns forgive me XD So please don't quote me on the origin of souls, the intricacies of magic and any relationships between Realms ;) Enjoy the Loki POV!

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _He was just wondering if he should take his pizza with him and retire to his bedroom, when Thor looked at him with the most serious expression he had ever seen on his face. "Friend Tony," the blond said, and that clearly meant trouble. Was it too late to flee now? "We," he continued, throwing a warning gaze at Loki, "need to speak with you about a most serious matter." Well, shit._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 6**

Stark looked just as tense as Loki felt. He really did not want to think of this matter, let alone _talk_ about it! He'd prefer to forget about it all together. And if only he could. He knew he was doomed, though. And he would have to tell it all to the mortal, he knew that. But he was so exhausted!

"Can we not do this in the morrow?" He added a pleading look for Thor's sake. It used to work when he was younger; lately, though, it rarely did. "We are all very tired."

"Yeah, totally agree! Pizza, and then sleep until at least tomorrow afternoon, that's all I need," Stark said. The Midgardian tried to look relaxed, but Loki recognised the tension around his eyes.

Thor only appeared just as forbidding, and Loki knew his attempt at delaying the inevitable had failed. When the blonde had decided something, the stubborn oaf would not listen to anything. "We shall discuss this now."

"Okay. I need a drink then. You want one? Yeah, I think you'll want one. You both look way too serious for this tower, you know." Stark stood up and walked over to the bar. The amber alcohol he had taken earlier today was still there, and he picked it up with three glasses and brought it to the low table standing next to the L-form couch. He then walked back to the bar again, and took the two pizza boxes with him. "Here," he said to Thor. "All yours."

Loki still had not opened his own box. It felt merely warm in his normal-coloured hands. He was relieved his shapeshifting had succeeded, and had deactivated the ice magic as well. Stark looked rather fatigued, and it was his fault – he had stolen magic from his veins, and even a tiny amount from his mechanical heart, to manage the shapeshifting until the end. He had even taken a bit too much, so he had transformed it into physical energy healing. At least he had been able to walk on his own this way. Even though looking weak might be practical sometimes, he hated it, so not having to lean on Stark was a relief. He had already needed to borrow energy – well, steal more like, as he was not going to give it back – and that was pathetic enough.

Stark had almost finished his… pizza, and was still slowing munching on a piece. He looked sideways at Loki, then at the unopened cardboard box. "You should eat. You didn't get much of that shawarma, or the fries." When Loki didn't do anything, Stark leaned over and opened the box, revealing a pristine, untouched pepperoni pizza. "Don't tell me I've got to bodily feed you again." Before the man could get any crazy ideas in his head, Loki picked up a piece, the cheese resisting the separation.

It smelled edible enough. It just did not look very palatable, or healthy. However, if mortals could consume it, surely a god could as well. He cautiously took a bite. Well. It was not the best of meals, but it was good enough for now. And if he ate, he could not be expected to speak. Loki endeavoured to unhurriedly demolish this pepperoni pizza.

Thor, of course, had other plans. "Brother. You said it was soul magic that permitted Tony to touch you unharmed. Are you truly certain? You know better than me that such a thing is as rare as the meeting of stars."

"Wait," Stark said, holding up his hands, palms outward. "Are you confirming the existence of souls here? 'Cause if you do I might need to revise my faith. Most of humanity might too. This could be kind of big deal, you know. So, how does it work? If there is a soul, what happens to it when you die?"

Thor looked taken aback by the question even though he should not have; for beings as short-lived as mortals, it was logical that death and afterlife was on their minds. Instead of answering, the blond oaf just looked at Loki, and Loki sighed. _Of course_ it would be his turn to explain such things. Oh, joy…

"After death, souls travel to Helheimr, the Realm of the dead. There they stay until they are reunited with their other half, after which it is believed they join Yggdrasil again and once more become one with It. Some say souls are later reborn similar to what they were before, during the next Release and subsequent Split."

Stark blinked at him in incomprehension. That was not surprising; Loki had not made his explanation understandable to a being as young and ignorant as a mortal. He could barely believe himself that he was bound to this weak creature, and that his life depended on it.

"So, let me get this straight. If I understand anything of what you're saying, souls are, like, generated by that Yggra-thing, and when someone dies they go to hell – where the fuck is paradise in this scenario – and hell is like a waiting room. And then they go back to Yggra-thing and are reborn again, maybe the same, maybe different. Right?" Even if Stark's understanding was very crude, Loki was surprised by what he had managed to understand in Loki's rapid little speech. "What I don't get it the 'other half' and 'splitting' thing." Ah. The mortal even succeeded in pointing out the most important element of this Norn forsaken conversation. Interesting.

"Yggdrasil, the World Tree, or Life Tree, connects all of the Nine Realms. It has no physical manifestation in our planes of existence, and grows Its power from the Well of Urd, where the Three Norns reside. The Norns are the entities who control the Well; Urd, chief of them, is also known as Lady Fate; Verdandi is master of the present and everything that is, and Skuld holds the future and everything that can be." Stark looked disbelieving, and yet listened raptly. Thor, on the other hand, did not pay any attention to these tales he already knew, and instead was stealing pieces from Loki's pizza in an anything but discreet manner.

Stark chose that moment to pour alcohol in his glass, and Loki paused. Without a word the mortal took a second glass and filled that one to the brink, before handing it to Loki. He took a cautious sip. It had a strange taste, though not a disagreeable one, and it was about as strong as Asgardian mead. He tossed the rest down his throat, and continued.

"Yggdrasil brings magic along Its branches to the Realms, and all beings living under Its shade can, theoretically, use magic. All souls come from the Well of Urd, and through the Norns' carvings in Yggdrasil's trunk, the souls are embedded in the World Tree. That is when the Split occurs. All souls are split in two, creating two halves of a whole, two sister souls. These half-souls – which are often wrongly called 'souls' even if they are not complete – travel along the branches of Yggdrasil until it is time for them to be borne by a physical body. When these bodies die, the half-souls go to Helheimr, where they reunite and become whole again. There can be a long lapse between the arrival of one half-soul and the other, because all half-souls are not born to physical beings at the same time; or, even if they were, one bearer may die young while the other grows old. Once reunited, the soul will, at some point, leave Helheimr and join Yggdrasil again. Perhaps they go back to Urd's Well, to dissolve in the rest of the cosmos and reform, changed, later on. Or, the soul remains in Yggdrasil and is Split again, though in another manner than before, and reborn in new physical bodies. That is something only the Norns know."

"Right. Uh huh. Okay. So. You have proof for that, or is this just some spiritual belief, like, based on some very old book or other? 'Cause we have a lot of those too, and they're all very differ—"

"Most of this has been proven."

Stark's mouth stayed open for a few seconds, still ready to finish his previous word. "Huh. Okay. If you say so. Let's say I believe you – which, yeah, can't say I do – but let's _pretend_ I do, why the hell are you telling _me_? I mean, I'm sure the others would like to know too. You'd probably turn Cap's life upside down with a story like that – and he woke up to a whole different world after seventy years of icy sleep, so he knows all about updating world views."

Thor chose that moment to intervene – finally – and spoke with his mouth full of cheese and dough. " _You_ are part of the proof that confirms the Conception Tales, friend Stark." And that was all the oaf said, damn him!

" _I_ … help prove your… tales. How? No, what the fuck have you been smoking? Do you get high on pepperoni, or what?"

"What Thor means," Loki said, glaring at his false brother, "is that you and I, we verify a long-discarded myth that proves the 'one soul split in two' tale." He fell silent, unable to simply say it outright. Which was ridiculous, really. 'What is, is.' There was no need to be unnerved by the truth – even if one would prefer for it not to be true.

"How? What the fuck did I do that is so special?"

Loki laughed humourlessly. "Oh, you didn't _do_ anything. And neither did I. This is just all for the amusement of Lady Fate. We…" Loki took a deep breath, and yet the words refused to pass his lips. It was utterly pathetic, but he would have go about it another way. "Souls – half-souls, sister souls – never meet before Helheimr. There are so many souls in the nine Realms, that even for people as long-lived as the Æsir, coming across one's other half-souls is practically unheard of. Almost unheard of. The meeting of souls, or the so-called Myth of Soul-Mates, is nowadays only known as a fanciful story that mothers tell their daughters at bedtime. It is, however, not a myth, but only impossibly rare."

"Okay. No. I don't like your story. Like, not at all. I think I'm getting the gist of it, and I don't like it at all. Forget it. You can keep your weird-arse fairy tales!" Stark stood up, shaking his head, and tried to bypass Thor and flee to other rooms, but the Asgardian was quicker. He caught the mortal's shoulder and pushed him back down – pushed him with such force that Stark had no choice but to fold himself in two. "Yeah, okay!" he said, pushing at Thor's arm until he pulled away, and massaging his sore muscles. "I'll listen to your bullshit!" He poured himself another generous amount of amber liquid and downed it. "So. Please tell me you didn't just say we were soulmates."

"I…" If only Stark knew how much Loki wished he didn't have to say it. "We are, unfortunately… soulmates."

"Right. And how the fuck did you get to _that_ stupid conclusion?"

Stark's anger was contagious, and Loki took a deep breath to calm down, closing his eyes for good measure. It was unfortunate, outrageous even, but there was nothing to be done. Absolutely nothing. Accepting it was hard, but that was what needed to be done. By Stark and himself both. "When we touched the first time… When I tried to… strangle you… Our souls tried to connect, and Thanos' power managed to throw off that brittle contact, which resulted in me tossing you down. When I tried to strangle you the second time, our half-souls connected completely, and our contact could not be broken again – our soul became one, like it would have later, after death."

"And you looking like death warmed over, what was that?"

"That was soul magic, led by Lady Fate, battling Thanos' magic, using me as a conduit to fight each other. Soul magic is the rarest and purest form of magic, while Thanos uses the foulest of magics, death and blood magic, and both oppose each other in all things. Standing in between is very dangerous, and I really thought I was dying for a moment."

Stark lifted an eyebrow. "Right. And that makes us… soulmates, because of some opposing mojo shit?"

Loki chuckled. "No, there is more proof. Soulmates are connected. Forever bound. They share magic – the magic signature is even the same – and they share life force, and perhaps other things I'm not aware of. After you went through the portal, I collapsed, so I assume it was because you did as well."

"Yeah, my heart might have stopped at some point there."

"Mmh, I see. So your recklessness might have killed me. Typical." Loki forced his breath out through his nose. No need to dwell on the past. "If you die, I die, or if I die, you die. We are bound in life and death, and there is nothing, not even through magic, that can be done about it. Even the Norns cannot change this."

Stark looked dumbfounded for a moment, and then, most curiously, started to laugh. He laughed and laughed until he started to cough, and then laughed some more. Thor watched him, surprised, but Loki was not. He himself would have laughed himself silly if he had not known how dire the situation truly was.

"My brother is not jesting, friend Tony."

"No… _cough, cough_ … I can see that on your faces." Stark's chuckles slowly died down, and his face regained a serious expression. "So… Apart from the one dies the other dies – which, really, what the fuck man! – what does this whole soulm—, no I can't say it, it's too strange. Combined souls thing. What does that entail?"

"It _entails_ that we cannot be separate, and that my life-time has been tremendously shortened," Loki replied acerbically.

"Geez, sorry for being human!" Stark replied in a similar tone. He closed his eyes and gripped the bridge of his nose, staying like that for a few moments. When he looked up again he was composed. "What do you mean by 'not separate'."

"I'm… unsure. I never listened much to these myths. One thing that always comes back is the inability to stay separate."

"Right. Any idea of the maximum distance?"

"'They could not be Realms apart.' That is all I'm sure of."

"Okay. So, supposing all this is true, you're at least stuck on the same planet as me, and worst case scenario, the same tower. And our lives depend on each other. Anything else?" Stark seemed remarkably calm now, as if he had managed to detach himself from the situation at hand; perhaps he liked to pretend this was happening to someone else.

"I discovered that our magic signature is the exact same; I thought that was impossible, as every signature is unique. And as we have the same magic, we can use each other's corporal magic. You have an extra magic signature, coming from your mechanical light. Also, it would seem that my magic, at least, cannot hurt you."

"Right. Great." Silence fell then, uncomfortable and loaded. Stark emptied the rest of his alcohol in the three glasses, and picked his up. "Cheers." The mortal chucked his drink down, as did Thor. Loki sipped his this time. He wondered what was going through Stark's mind. Did he believe all this? It was a lot to take in in one day; people from other Realms and beyond, magic and soul bonds. Even if he did believe it, he probably could not realise the implications yet.

"Well, I'm beat! How about we get some sleep and never get out of bed again? Jarv', tell me which rooms we have."

"Captain Rogers and Doctor Banner took a guest room, and Agents Barton and Romanoff another. The two other guest rooms are not usable. Only Miss Potts' room, and your room, Sir, can welcome our visitors."

"I see. Well. After a day like this, everyone should at least get a bed. I don't have any comfortable couches. They're all expensive designs, but they're not really meant to be sat on." Stark stood up and stretched. "Let's go." And he walked towards the stairs that embraced the elevator shaft.

They went up the steps, a great many of them, Thor's heavy footfalls echoing in the silence. While the exertion barely made Loki light-headed, Stark was breathing heavily once they arrived on the intended floor, and Loki wondered if it had been pride or a miscalculation in his own stamina that had had Stark forgo the more than useful elevator. In the corridor that followed, there were two doors that opposed each other. At the end of the passage, a window showed the darkened city. Stark opened the door on their right, and the lights inside ignited.

"So. That's Pepper's bed. Which reminds me I haven't called her yet, and she is _so_ going to kill me… It's too late now, anyway. So, Pepper's bed, king sized, like all the beds here. You boys are brothers, so I'm sure you've slept in the same bed before."

Thor stepped inside, probably sharing Stark's logic, but there was no way Loki would stay all night in the same room as that idiot! Even if Thor did not snore like a bilgesnipe – which he did – he moved so much that you always ended up with his foot in your face in the middle of the night. And either way, Loki did not want to be subjected to Thor's questions.

"I won't stay in the same room as Thor."

"Brother—"

"I'm _not_ your brother." Thor's expression transformed into such a sad face that Loki had to turn away. "And I'm feeling weak again; I might revert back to my Jötunn form during the night, and only the Norns know what could happen!" he lied.

From the corridor where Stark had vacated to, a mumbled "liar" was followed by another door opening. This was the second time the mortal recognised his lies for what they were. He certainly had a keen perception.

"Oh. That is regrettable, Brother, yet inevitable. You will have to share Tony's bed, then."

Loki turned to Thor, eyes widened. From the other room, a "what?" resounded, and footsteps approached. Loki had not thought about that! "I'll sleep on a… couch. Or the ground."

"No," Stark said. "You're not gonna make _me_ a liar. I said everyone was gonna sleep on a bed. Mine is big enough." Loki just stared.

* * *

Finally, the cat is out of the bag! Tony knows about soulmates! It only took me like 20k XD And I know you might think that with both of them knowing, things will finally _start_ between them but… Sorry people :) I did say this was a slow build :p

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	7. Chapter 7

Hi there! Fancy seeing you here, dear reader ;) From now on most chapters are going to have both POVs, and the switch is marked by 'X's, so you can't miss it :) Time to get our boys in the same bed – though I warn you, don't get your hopes up, noting fancy is gonna happen :p

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _"Oh. That is regrettable, Brother, yet inevitable. You will have to share Tony's bed, then."_

 _Loki turned to Thor, eyes widened. From the other room, a "what?" resounded, and footsteps approached. Loki had not thought about that! "I'll sleep on a… couch. Or the ground."_

" _No," Stark said. "You're not gonna make_ me _a liar. I said everyone was gonna sleep on a bed. Mine is big enough." Loki just stared._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 7**

Ooookay. What the fuck had he just said? What the hell was wrong with him? Geez! Had he just offered to share a bed with Loki – a guy he didn't know, but who thought they were soulmates – just because he had felt, for some reason, that Loki had just lied about his health to get away from Thor, and Tony didn't want to be pegged as a liar too, so he'd what? Offered up the other half of his bed? Maybe he'd had one glass too much.

Loki looked as shocked at the proposal as Tony felt. He wanted to take his words back, but he wouldn't be able to face himself in the mirror if he did – stupid Stark pride did rear its ugly head at the most inopportune of times. Now he just had to go with the flow.

"Well, if that's settled, let's go. I want to sleep." He turned around and entered the room he had barely finished a few days ago and that still smelled brand new. He had only slept here twice, but it had never been alone; when he'd planned the layout, Pepper's room had been more like a formality than a necessity. Now, he was going to let someone else in that bed with him, and it felt like cheating. It certainly was a strange feeling. He wasn't sure he'd ever felt it like that before. He'd never really had a girlfriend that lasted more than a week before either. The 'soulmate' title made it all the worst. Suddenly he couldn't face the alien who had entered behind him.

"I'm gonna take a quick shower, no way I'm sleeping with all this grime on my skin. There's nothing in your size, but if you want you can try to find some sweat pants or something in the walk-in. J.A.R.V.I.S. will help you find something." He quickly entered the bathroom and slammed the door behind him before Loki had a chance to add anything.

Tony sighed. All right. Better just take that shower and not think about what he would find in his room afterwards. He cautiously peeled his clothes off – his ruined shirt caught on something on the back of his shoulder, and when he examined it in the mirror, bending in an uncomfortable position to see, he found a small gash he hadn't even been aware of.

When the hot water hit his skin, pulsing and raining down from all sides in his special massage shower, his muscles finally unwound, and he yawned, unbelievably drained and tired. He couldn't wait to slip between the sheets – but an unwanted body would be lying beside him, and he kind of wanted to be able to stay under this warm water forever.

He turned off the water with determination. _Come on Stark! You've slept next to dozens and dozens of different people before!_ Yeah, but he didn't have an Arc reactor they could steal, or have the opportunity to experiment upon him, or whatever else that crazy alien could have in mind! And he hadn't been in a steady – okay, steady-ish – relationship at the time either! And, he'd always 'slept' with those women before the 'sleeping' part began. Which, now, no fucking way in hell – because, you know, former-ish enemy, alien, and a _guy_! So this was unprecedented, uncomfortable, awkward, maybe even creepy, and definitely not a good idea.

Well, if he couldn't throw Loki out, he could always go sleep on the couch himself. Yeah, right, who was he kidding? As if he would let someone else sleep in _his_ bed, and take the horrible couch – whichever one he chose. Still, it would probably have been less weird to sleep next to Thor. At least with him, there wasn't that stupid 'soulmate' thing hanging in the air.

He stepped out of the shower, water dripping down on the fluffy rug, and he grabbed a clean towel on the rack. It was when he'd dried himself down and was rubbing his hair with a second towel that he realised. Shit! Shit, shit, shit! He'd been in such a hurry to get away that he'd forgotten to bring some pyjamas. The thought that he usually slept in the nude, and that it was therefore only natural to forget, didn't help at all either.

 _Okay. Calm down._ This was his house, he could walk around naked if he wanted. Not that he was going to; he had a towel around his hips after all. And he had nothing to be ashamed of. All right, so he didn't like his chest, the scars and Arc reactor so exposed, but apart from that he was Tony Stark, previously playboy extraordinaire. He was definitely good looking, if he could say so himself. And if he said so himself, it could only be true.

With that thought in mind, he stepped out of the bathroom and stopped short. His mouth might even have opened at tiny little bit because of the sight before him. Okay, so he had not expected that. He should have, really. Well, now he sure felt inadequate.

Loki had turned towards him when he'd heard the door whoosh open, giving a perfect view of first his profile, than his front. He was wearing an old pair of grey sweat pants that were way too short and should have looked ridiculous, but it hugged his curves in a way that made it look like it was made for him. The bulge at mid-height looked particularly big, and Tony certainly didn't look at it, even in passing. And if all that wasn't enough, Loki was naked from the waist up, exposing porcelain white skin, nipples like pink rose petals on snow, and not a hair in sight – Tony wondered briefly if the alien even ever had any, or if he'd magicked them away; Tony himself had had his chest lasered long ago.

Loki was muscular without being burly, lithe and strong at the same time, in what seemed like a perfect combination, and Tony, who had never felt embarrassed by his forms before, was definitely feeling self-conscious now. He had no reason to feel like a teenager looking longingly at bodies of porn-stars; so what if he was a bit small, and a bit square shouldered, and that even though he had enough muscles, he couldn't show off a perfect six pack! Charm was important too, and Tony certainly had that! Loki probably had it too though – and even if he didn't, with a face like that he didn't need it. Okay, so Tony now understood why those aliens had been mistaken for gods – they were strong, they had awesome powers, and they could look unworldly beautiful. _Nope, I didn't just think that!_

He realised he had been staring too long when Loki quirked an eyebrow. Tony cleared his throat and purposefully strode to the walk-in closet. "The right side of the bed is mine!" God, that was awkward! He closed the closet door behind him and let the towels fall. On his way to the pyjama shelf he never used, he passed a full-length mirror and stopped to stare. Fucking hell, his face was red! And not just red, but completely crimson! He only now became aware of the prickling heat of his skin as it slowly burned up. Jesus Christ, he was blushing like a fucking virgin! This was ridiculous! No, worse, this was _pathetically_ ridiculous!

On a sudden whim he turned away from his previous destination, grabbed his favourite dark blue sweat pants, slipped them on and got out of the closet with a confident stride. Even though his new-found self-assurance withered the moment his eyes met Loki's – who was now sitting on the end of the bed with his elbows on his knees, hair messier than before, as if he'd threaded his hands through it in frustration – Tony still pretended this was all very normal, and headed straight to the bed.

"Stark—"

"Nope! Not listening! I'm gonna sleep now, so I don't wanna hear another word. Good night." He slid quickly between the covers and laid down on his side, facing away from the other side of the bed. Thank God for his expensive tastes and huge king-sized beds! The moment the rustling of the covers stopped, he called "lights!", and they were plunged into darkness.

Of course, now that he finally had the opportunity to sleep, he felt wide awake. He could hear Loki softly breathe, and it disturbed him more than it should. It sounded so different from Pepper's almost inaudible exhalations – that reminded him that she hadn't even called him to make sure he wasn't mortally injured or something! She must have followed the battle or whatever the media had displayed world-wide by now. An alien attack and superheroes fighting them off in the middle of New York City couldn't be hushed up, even by S.H.I.E.L.D.

She probably expected him to call. Which is something he definitely should have done. What kind of boyfriend was he, to not let her know he was unharmed? She must be worried sick, perhaps imagining that the reason he hadn't called yet was because he was lying unconscious in some hospital or other. With everything that was happening, he hadn't really had time to call. That was understandable, right? Still, he probably should have sent a message of some sort, or let J.A.R.V.I.S. do it. He was not gonna hear the end of this, he was sure of it.

And what with the whole Loki situation? How could you tell your girlfriend that you'd met your soulmate, and that, even worse, he was male? Not that he believed this alien bullshit. Weren't soulmates supposed to be super compatible or something? Like instant chemistry? Loki and him certainly didn't have that. In what universe where soulmates of the same sex anyway? Especially if (at least) one of them wasn't gay at all.

Yeah, it was probably better not to tell Pepper these crazy ideas – especially as nothing had been proven where he was concerned. Okay, so he was certain he could tell, for some reason, when Loki was lying. He got like an itchy feeling behind his Arc reactor, and he just knew that meant whatever Loki said was a lie. Even when he couldn't see him or read him in any way. And that was frightfully strange, to say the least. But that was not evidence enough yet. So, no need to worry Pepper needlessly.

His eyes flew open when a thought hit him. Science fiction and fantasy looked like child's play compared to this last day. But if SF and fantasy had taught him anything, it was that humans always forgot the bigger picture, and other creature always thought in outrageously strange ways. "Hey! You said we were irrevocably bound and all that, don't tell me they consider us… married over there, on Asgard!"

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Loki had closed his eyes and controlled his breathing to appear asleep, but the question made his breath hitch, and he could not pretend he had not heard. Married. He had forgotten about that. "No," he started with, and he knew he should have phrased his answer another way when Stark sighed in relief. "We are considered more than married. We are considered one."

The mortal groaned, and the covers rustled when he turned around to face Loki – even though it was useless, as the darkness should not permit the mortal to see anything. Loki could see the outlines of the man's body, and he saw the blanket move away before the bluish light from Stark's chest illuminated their faces.

"What's that supposed to mean, 'one'?"

"It means that, in the rest of the Nine Realms, they will see us as more than married, more than family; we are two halves of the same person, in the same manner as we have two halves of the same soul."

Stark blinked in the half-darkness, and a hand came up, palm towards Loki, as if to reject what was being said. "Bullshit! How can they see us as one person, when we are obviously two, very distinct people!"

"I'm aware Midgard would feel different about this. I'm merely telling you Asgard's point of view." Stark was shaking his head, his skin rasping against his pillow, and Loki felt compelled to add: "I'm not lying," even if having to say it left a bitter taste on his tongue.

"I know," Stark grumbled, and Loki wondered if he could truly read Loki's face in this light. "I just don't see how they can see us as one person."

"Our bodies and minds may not be one at this time, but our soul and magic are. That is enough to consider us one."

"What do you mean 'at this time'?" Stark's voice conveyed the same dismay as Loki felt. He certainly did not want to lose the only parts of him that were still free and unbound, to someone who was practically a stranger.

"In the stories Mothe—" Loki cut himself off, unable to continue. After all this, did Mother still consider him her son? After all he had done? She had said that even if she had not birthed him, he would always be her precious Loki, but perhaps she had changed her mind now. He closed his eyes, and forced himself to continue. "In the stories Queen Frigga told me long ago, it happened that soulmates knew each other's thoughts. I don't know if it was meant as a metaphor, or if it was literal. People who know each other by heart can predict the other's thoughts without truly knowing said thoughts. I was never really interested by these tales, so I don't know the details."

"Right. So you're saying maybe there are gonna be mind melds, and maybe not. That's real helpful."

Loki turned, lying on his back, and looked up at the ceiling. While it had been light in colour before, it had now taken a dark tint, and tiny dots reflected Stark's blue glow, twinkling like stars on a clear night. Midgardians really had strange tastes in decoration.

"So, er… What else made those soulmates one, in your stories?" Stark sounded strangely hesitant, and it took some time for Loki to connect the dots with what he had previously said, or rather, omitted.

"In most myths, soulmates end up as lovers as well, if that is what you were asking."

"I wasn't asking that!" Stark said, and Loki felt a soft pressure and prickling high in his chest, where his heart would be if he were in his true form. And he knew, without a doubt, that Stark had just lied. How he could be so certain he did not know; with just the mortal's tone, and simple logic, he would have come to the same conclusion, but he would not have been able to be completely sure. Now, he knew it had been a lie, without the inkling of a doubt. And suddenly he knew also how Stark could identify _his_ lies. It was the Soul Bond.

"Uhm, and in your stories, are there any… What I'm asking is… Shit." Stark took a deep breath, and held it an instant. "Are there same sex couples?"

"Same sex? Not that I'm aware of. There was however, if I remember correctly, the myth of a Ljósálfr and a Svartálfr. I believe on Midgard they called them Light Elves and Black Elves, or perhaps it was Elves and Dwarves."

"Elves and Dwarves? You've got to be kidding me!"

"In this tale, an… Elf and a Dwarf were soulmates. They were both, in a way, female."

"Ha! So there are same sex soulmates!"

"Not exactly. Dwarves are not either male or female. They are both – or perhaps neither. This Dwarf preferred to pass as female in the other Realms, but she wasn't truly female." Loki knew where this conversation was going, and he did not like it at all. Still, it had to be told some day. Perhaps it would be easier to get it all done now.

"So, what? You're saying we're the first? 'Cause if you do, I gotta say this makes your soulmate story even less believable."

"I must point out that I only know a fraction of the myths about soulmates. There may indeed be 'same sex soulmates', as you say. It would need to be researched. And I would like to research our situation further, however as we cannot be Realms apart, it would mean you would need to come with me."

"No fucking way! Going through one portal was enough! I'm not travelling to crazy land!"

"I wouldn't want you to. It is safer here, for both of us." Loki closed his eyes, and slowly breathed out through his nose. "We are not 'same sex soulmates'".

"What?" Stark suddenly sat up and turned towards him; he could see the intensity of the blue light through his closed eyelids.

"I only learned it not long ago myself. I always thought I was male – I still feel like I'm male. However, as it turns out, I'm a Frost Giant. And Frost Giants are, I suppose, what you would call hermaphrodites." The mattress shivered when Stark sprung out of bed, and when Loki sat up to look at him, the white of the mortal's eyes seemed impossibly big in the blue glow. His mouth was open, and it closed only to open again, then close again. The mortal looked utterly shocked, but Loki supposed that was normal.

If one had only heard of two sexes before, finding out others existed must be rather surprising. And finding out you had a soulmate, and discovering they were not of the sex you thought they were… Perhaps he should have approached the matter differently. It was too late now, anyway. As Stark stayed silent, Loki continued. "King Laufey of Jötunheimr, who has also been called Queen Laufey, was my true father – or perhaps I should say, my true mother, for he, even though in Asgardian eyes he appeared male, was the one who bore me. My other… parent was Fárbauti, who fathered me, but who was the mother to my true brothers, Helblindi and Býleistr." Loki looked away, and most embarrassingly his next thought was voiced in a whisper. "Perhaps Laufey chose not to bear another child himself after having given birth to a runt like me."

* * *

Oh, Loki, darling! Let me give you a hug XD Poor dears, why am I torturing them so? Oh, I know! Because it's fun :p

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	8. Chapter 8

Hey people ! Ready for some awkward comforting on Tony's part – get your mind out of the gutter, I'm talking about _talking_ :p – and a cosy wake up in the morning – seriously, nothing's going to happen yet, so stop getting your hopes up, you'll just be disappointed :p

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _Loki looked away, and most embarrassingly his next thought was voiced in a whisper. "Perhaps Laufey chose not to bear another child himself after having given birth to a runt like me."_

* * *

 **CHAPTER 8**

Tony could not distinguish Loki's face very well in the semi-darkness, but he was certain the man – or maybe not a 'man' in any way after all – was feeling a strange mixture of sadness and guilt, even though his expression remained the same. He knew that he could tell what Loki was feeling right now, even though he should not be able to, and that was a scary thought. It probably meant that the soulmate gig was real, and that this 'link' was proof of a bond between their minds. Fuck! He didn't want anyone inside his head, nor did he want to be in anyone else's! Why did his life always go so royally to shit?

Loki lowered himself down in silence, tugged the covers up to his chin and turned on his side, facing the wall. Great! Now he had a depressed alien on his hands! And he was really crap at this 'comfort' thing too. What the fuck were you supposed to say to 'after seeing my ugly mug Mom refused to bear other kids'?

"What does a Frost Giant look like?"

Loki stayed silent for so long Tony thought he wouldn't answer, and when he did, it was with reluctance. "Blue skin. Red eyes. Giant." And that was all he said. So very helpful!

"Okay, so, you've got blue skin, so that's Frost Giant-y all right. Red eyes, check. So, you're just small. Like, you've got alien dwarfism. I mean, what the fuck? You're taller than me! I'm not _that_ short, but next to you I sure am! And I kinda hate that, 'cause I have a height complex. Do you have a height complex? I sure do! So okay, maybe Frost Giants don't like their kids to be small, and I don't know what the height difference is – I mean, are they twice your size? More? Who the fuck cares? Your parents were idiots if they abandoned you. 'Cause I'm pretty sure that to a lot of humans, you look fucking amazing!"

During his speech, Loki had sat back up, bare chest displayed in his Arc reactor's light, which gave it some kind of light Jötunn-ish colour. "Are you trying to make me feel better, Stark?"

"It's Tony. And so what if I am?" An eyebrow lifted. "Is it working?"

Loki snorted. "There was no need."

Yeah, right! And he was the frigging Pope! He kinda wanted to shove the 'I can feel what you feel' thing in his face, but that would make the whole situation way too real. If he couldn't have blissful ignorance, he'd take fake blissful ignorance instead.

Had the 'comforting' worked? He couldn't really tell; he was bad at this shit, always had been. He couldn't feel anything else coming from Loki, so he had no idea. This whole mind bond thing sure didn't do its job when it needed to!

"Okay, so I get that learning after all that time that your adopted sucks, but, you hate being a Frost Giant, right? Why?"

Loki looked away. "Because they are stupid, cruel, monstrous warmongers. Because they are the monsters parents tell their children about at bedtime. Because I am an ugly monster in disguise."

There was the dejected feeling again. Well, shit! _You should learn when to shut your trap, Tony!_ Well, now he had no choice but to continue. "All right. They're stupid, you say. Well, you don't look stupid to me, and I'm a certified genius, so I can tell. And maybe they're cruel, but I don't know if _you're_ cruel, because you – and I mean you, not Thanos-controlled-you – haven't been cruel to me yet. And I don't know about Jötunn history, but do _you_ like war? I bet you don't. As for monsters parents tell their children abou— Wait a sec! Are you telling me Odin and, what was her name? Your adoptive mom. Did they tell you Frost Giants were monsters when you were a kid?"

Loki didn't even have to say a word; the foreign misery that washed over Tony was enough. "The motherfuckers! They're complete sickos! Jesus! My parents were saints compared to them! No wonder you're so fucked up – no offence! I'm fucked up too. But still. Geez!" Tony took a deep breath to calm down, and realised he had been pacing to and fro like a mad man just a second ago. Oookay, time to sit back down. He was supposed to reassure someone, not rave like a lunatic.

Tony got half back under the covers, and lied down facing Loki. "Look, I've known you for like five minutes, so I don't know about all the shit you did in your long life. How old are you, by the way?"

"I'm three thousand and thirty-four years old. The equivalent in mortal years would be about twenty-eight, if I'm not mistaken."

"Holy fucking hell! I'm forty-two, like, just forty-two, and now I feel like super insignificantly young, and old at the same time. I don't know how you do it, but that's amazing! So, I don't know what you did in the – holy hell! – three thousand years you've been alive, but I guess that unless people – and by that I mean normal, civilised people, not crazy people like Odin and shit – unless they've told you repeatedly how you're such a horrible monster – which I guess wasn't the case – then you're probably not a monster."

There. Reassurance complete, right? Loki smirked. "Well done, Sta—"

"Tony."

"…Tony. You've countered _almost_ every argument I used."

Almost? Tony rewound the conversation in his mind. Stupid, check; cruel, check; warmonger, check; monster, check. What el— Oh, it was ' _ugly_ monster in disguise'. "You mean 'ugly'? I thought I'd already tackled that one earlier, but whatever. And don't take this like some kind of praise, or some kind of declaration, all right! I'm just talking, like, objectively or something."

Tony rolled onto his back and closed his eyes; this would probably be easier if he didn't have to see Loki smirk all the while. "So, let's start with the skin colour. I already said I thought it was cool-looking, but you don't seem to believe me, so I'll explain. We humans have a very fertile imagination, and in fiction, we like to imagine skin colours of every possible shade, where fictional aliens are concerned. So I've seen a lot of variations of those, and among all the colours, I've always thought blue was the best. I mean, colours like green and orange and pink and yellow and stuff, that just hurts the eyes. Purple just looks like an all-over bruise, and red, while a great colour, doesn't work on skin, like, at all. True black is just burnt to a crisp, and pure white looks like death, so that ain't great either. But blue; blue is a great skin colour. Blue is even a great hair colour. As long as it's not blue hair on blue skin – too much blue – blue's is great."

Tony chanced a glance at Loki, and he was pleased to see all mischief gone from his feature, replaced by true surprise. Tony didn't know if it was because his ramblings were just too crazy, or if Loki had truly believed nobody could appreciate his skin tone. Whatever it was, it was working, so he did what he did best and rambled on.

"Now, the red eyes are a bit unnerving, I'll give you that, but it's a great red, even better than my suit's hot rod red, so I'm kinda jealous. I love red. Kinda my favourite colour. My suit isn't red and gold for nothing! I know, it kinda screams Gryffindor, but I don't care. And I'm kinda jealous Thor made red and gold look cool before I was even born, but whatever. I'm sure rocking those colours! But I'm getting off topic. I gotta say, as aliens go, even fictional ones, you sure as hell are the prettiest of the lot!" Loki made a face. "Okay, so maybe pretty isn't the best word for it. But let me tell you, with a face – and body – like yours, you could charm a whole army of women into doing whatever you want, and I mean that in whatever skin you wear! So, did I cover all your concerns now?"

Loki blinked a few times before answering. "I believe you did."

"Great! Any more silly issues we need to tackle, or can we finally go to sleep?"

Loki's smile was small and soft, and it completely transformed his face. The quiet amusement and shy fondness that trickled down Tony's spine was definitely not his, but he shivered in response. Loki closed his eyes, and the small stretch of his lips stayed a few moments more. "Sweet dreams, Tony."

Why that phrase made his spine tingle again, he didn't know, but he quickly turned around to face away from Loki, and screwed his eyes shut. "Er, good night!" he squeaked belatedly in answer, and silence overtook the room.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Loki woke up in a warm, comfortable bed, lying on his back with his right arm stuck under a hot body, a scalding hand plastered to his stomach, and stubble prickling his shoulder. It was more the temperature difference than the fact that Stark – Anthony – was holding onto him in his sleep that made Loki's eyes pop open. The sudden light made his irises turn to pinpricks, and he used his free hand to shield them. The daylight that entered through the floor-to-ceiling windows halved rapidly, and Loki blinked in the new, better lighting.

"Sir. It is time to wake up, Sir," said the voice of Jarvis from above them, and Loki automatically looked up, but of course there was no one. He quickly looked back down, at his own skin, and was relieved to see it had not turned blue during the night. The surface temperature was half what it should be in his Æsir skin, so he adjusted it with a small burst of magic, but nothing more. He should endeavour to abstain from all magic if at all possible; a depleted core filled up much more rapidly if given complete rest. The temperature was important though; if it dropped too low, he might shift back to his Jötunn skin again. It was possible that the only reason his shapeshifted skin had held was because of Anthony, serving as a living blaze. Said blaze was now shifting in his sleep, either stirred by the voice calling him, or by the sudden warmth.

"Sir, it is time to wake up," Jarvis repeated, and the sunlight flooded the room fully again.

Anthony groaned and mumbled something faintly resembling 'five more minutes', while the hand on Loki's stomach slid around his waist and tightened, and the rest of the man snuggled closer. There was now a face against Loki's neck, breathing hot air against his skin, and a distinctive bulge was poking at his hip. Loki knew – even though he had no evidence whatsoever – that Anthony's reaction when he woke up would be embarrassment. Utter silent mortification.

"Sir," Jarvis said again, to no avail.

"Anthony," Loki said, and this time Anthony's eyes flew open – he could feel the eyelashes brush his skin – and the mortal's body stiffened for two whole seconds, before he jerked himself back with such force that he almost tumbled out of the massive bed. Loki watched on, amused, as Anthony gathered the covers around him – to hide his crotch from view, probably – and his face reddened at a fascinatingly quick rate.

"Good morning," Loki said as he sat upright.

Anthony worked his jaw a few times, before he managed to utter: "Mo— Morning."

Loki combed a hand through his hair and looked at the dishevelled mortal with a smirk. "I trust I was an adequate pillow?" Anthony's face flooded with more blood and shock, if such a thing was even possible, and he suddenly broke eye contact. This little mortal could be so wise and well-spoken in the evening, and so young and innocent in the morning; it made Loki want to tease him even more. It was probably best, though, if he did not antagonise his soulmate too much. By Yggdrasil, the man next to him was truly his soulmate! It was still such a strange situation to grasp.

Loki stood up and walked towards the windows that displayed the half-destroyed city centre. While he stretched in the sunlight, he felt the stare searing his back, but ignored it. He did not think Anthony was ready to face him at the moment. His soulmate. It was his soulmate sitting on the bed behind him. For some reason, in the calm of the morning, everything seemed so very surreal.

Even more so was the conversation of last night. Anthony had been surprisingly nice, even though he had at first completely rejected the notion of soulmates; it was not unexpected, considering the mortal's ignorance of such things; and still it had hurt Loki deep down – he had been rejected, again. And yet, Anthony had invited him to share his room for the night, and he had even been nice to Loki, trying to stifle his fears.

Loki did not know many people – no, he did not know anyone – who would have said such things to him and meant them. And Anthony had meant them; Loki knew there had been no lie, and he had even felt some of the sincerity – or sometimes, indignation – that the mortal had projected. He felt along the mind bond now, and it rippled with embarrassment and awkwardness, accompanied by a tinge of arousal. How bemusing; were mortals always so uncomfortable with the natural reactions of their bodies, or was Anthony only one of a few? Even if the next few years would be anything but good, at least they had the potential of being amusing.

The moment he turned around the mortal looked away, and Loki let a grin lift his lips for a few seconds. When his expression had returned to its neutral state, he asked: "May I use your bathing facilities?"

"Uh, yeah, sure."

Loki collected the clothes he had left on the strange-looking couch that took up a corner of the room. The fabric and leather did not smell very good, and cleaning it with magic would be too taxing. He looked down at the odd, too short trousers he was wearing. He could not exactly ask Anthony for other clothes of his, as they would not fit him.

Anthony, though, seemed to have understood his problem, for he addressed the disembodied voice. "Jarv', I think we have a clothes situation, and not just in this room. You've scanned the whole group on entry, I'm sure you can order the right size for everybody."

"Of course, Sir. Did you have any particular design in mind?"

"Apart from putting Clint in Tweety yellow? No, you go ahead and choose whatever you think is best."

"Very well, Sir. Oh, and Sir, Miss Potts is in her room, having a heated conversation with Mr Odinson after she found him in her bed. Should I let her know you are awake?"

"What? What the fuck, Jarv'! Why didn't you tell me she was here?" Anthony sprung out of bed and raced to the door. "Why the fuck didn't you wake me?" And out he went. The door closed itself on its own.

Not knowing when these clothes Anthony meant to provide would arrive, Loki walked with his clothes to the bathroom. He put them down on a free surface, and observed the bathtub. It was rather big and standing at the end of the room, with enough space to walk around it, and from it one would have a very nice view of the city through the two glass walls. The tap, however, looked really strange; one knob had diamonds growing in size inserted upon it, and the other had golden numbers that made no sense to Loki.

"If I may, Mister Odinson," Jarvis said, and Loki cringed at the name.

"Please, don't call me that."

"Very well. What name should I use? I am correct in assuming that, after last night's story, you do not wish to be called Laufeyson either?"

"Do you listen to every conversation in this house?"

"Indeed I do, Mister…"

Jarvis' voice trailed out, waiting for a name, and Loki wondered which name he should give. Of course, he could ask to simply be called Loki, but he did not know the person, or whatever other entity – Loki had a feeling this Jarvis was not a mortal – hidden behind that voice. There was a name he would like to take, but he did not know if Mother would accept it; if his mother would still see him as such. Still, it was the best possible name he could have.

"Friggason. Loki Friggason."

"Very well, Mister Friggason. Would you allow me to draw you a bath, or would you prefer to shower?"

"Whichever is quicker."

"Then I would suggest the shower."

Yesterday Anthony had indeed not stayed long in this 'shower', whatever it was. Loki looked around again, identifying the washbasin easily, and the strange looking toilet as well. Glass walls, with a clear upper half and an opaque lower half, enclosed a different coloured corner of the room, and Loki supposed that could only be this 'shower'. Given the name, he guessed it meant water would rain down from somewhere.

He got out of these strange trousers, found how to open the glass door after a few seconds of observation, and stepped into the 'shower'. This tap looked ridiculously more complicated, with added buttons and little signs that did not make much sense.

"Can I be of assistance?"

"Yes. I don't know how to operate this… shower."

"If you wish for a simple setting, the symbol situated in the middle and representing three dotted lines should be facing the triangle of rubies." Loki turned the round central knob. "On the right side, you will find the different temperature settings. If you are sensitive to hot temperatures, I would suggest starting below ninety degrees Fahrenheit." Loki turned another handle. "As for the water flow, the bigger the diamond, the stronger the spray. On your right you will find a number of bottles. You may use the black and gold bottle labelled 'shampoo' to wash your hair once you have wetted it, and the red bottle with the mention 'body wash' is, I believe, self-explanatory."

Loki turned the diamond-adorned knob and let the warm rain wash his worries away. Then a thought occurred to him. "Jarvis. Who is 'Miss Potts'?"

* * *

So, there you have it! Tony's crazy bathroom, Pepper's arrival and all the melodrama! I'm sure having fun XD And I hope the wake up scene was enough "action" to keep you going for a while, because we're definitely not "there" yet!

Oh, and about Loki's age, I looked around the internet, and found out that some theories say that Loki is like, 17, which I find ridiculous. Because in Thor, he is born around 900AD, which is kind of stupid; how did Vikings meet Loki then, to write about him in the Eddas? (And as I use stuff from the Eddas, they obviously exist – even Seilvig knows about them, so they exist in the MCU as well). So I'm going with "Loki was like 17 when he met the Vikings". That sounds way more plausible to me ;) Just don't look at the math :p

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	9. Chapter 9

Hey there! I know you were expecting this chapter to continue in Loki POV because of the 'Who is Miss Potts' question, but… We're actually gonna find Miss Potts instead in Tony's POV :p

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _Loki turned the diamond-adorned knob and let the warm rain wash his worries away. Then a thought occurred to him. "Jarvis. Who is 'Miss Potts'?"_

* * *

 **CHAPTER 9**

Tony was standing half naked in the corridor, with Pepper doing a very good imitation of a harpy, while Thor looked on through the open door of the room behind her. The blond was obviously trying very hard not to laugh, and Tony wondered how long he would be able to hold himself back. Perhaps if the alien prince erupted in very manly giggles, Pepper would be just distracted enough for Tony to flee to the other side of his tower.

"TONY! Are you even listening to me?" she yelled in a shrill voice, getting so dangerously close to his bare feet with her stilettos that he had a hard time not stepping back. "No, you're not! I know you! You were fleeing this conversation by computing some silly nonsense numbers in your head, and pretending to be listening all the while! Would it be too much to ask for you to actually listen?"

Tears were starting to form in her eyes; and now Tony felt bad. She always managed to make him feel bad, some way or another. It was just that every time they had a row, she repeated the same arguments over and over again, and he knew them by heart by now. He knew them by heart after the first time she used them, even. Could he really be blamed for letting his mind wander in these circumstances?

Pepper wrapped her arms around herself. "Tony, can we please continue this conversation in your room?"

A tear glided down her cheek, and Tony knew he was done for. Crying was the worst thing she could do to him; he never knew how to handle it. The only thing he could do was look on, dismayed. "Yeah, okay. Let's get inside." It was only after the door closed behind them that he remembered that Loki – oh God, his soulmate! – was only a dozen or so yards away.

"Tell me the truth, Tony. Do you still love me?" Oh, boy! This conversation had turned on its head fast!

"Of course I love you, Pepper!" What kind of question was that? Why would she doubt his sincerity? Was it because he had not called last night to tell her he was fine? How ridiculous was that?

"Yes, I know you do. I know you do, in your own way. But Tony, I don't know if you love me the way I love you. I'm not sure you are _in_ love with me." Her voice broke on those last words, and tears were flooding her eyelashes now, running down her cheekbones and dripping onto her blouse. "I'm not sure you ever were," she added in a small, wobbly voice.

Tony could not have felt more unsettled if she'd suddenly cuffed him on the head. He was in love with her, right? Right? How different were loving someone and being in love with someone? How was he supposed to know, again? This was so confusing. She had thought they were both in love before, right? That had been enough for him; enough to think the same way. Why had she changed her mind all of a sudden?

"What do you mean?" he asked, and she addressed him a teary smile.

"How would you describe 'being in love'?"

Wasn't love supposed to be that great, beautiful, indescribable feeling – and did he mention _indescribable_? Was this some sort of trick question? She looked like she was awaiting an answer, so answer he did. "Er, wanting to be close to someone. Wanting to spend time with them, do things together? Uh, _wanting_ them?"

Pepper's expression didn't change, but he got a feeling that was not what she had wanted to hear. How was he supposed to know what she wanted to hear? It wasn't as if she ever told him that! He was always supposed to just know; well, sorry, but he wasn't some kind of psychic! Geez, women could be so unreasonable!

"And wouldn't you describe 'loving someone' the same way?"

"What? Are you crazy? Of course not! As if I'd ever want to have sex with Rhodey! Christ!"

"I didn't mean _that_. But you describe 'being in love' like I would friendship, and you just add lust at the end of it."

Now it was Tony's turn to cross his arms. "Okay. How do you describe 'being in love', then?"

She looked at him in a funny way then. "Wanting to spend every second of the day with someone. Never wanting to be apart. Always thinking about them. Having your heartbeat skyrocket every single time you see them. Feeling butterflies flutter in your stomach every time you think about them. Wanting to make them happy, whatever the cost."

And that was when he realised she was looking at him with pity; because she knew, even before he did, that he'd never been in love with her, or with anyone in his entire life. For all the women he had slept with, for all the few he had dated, including Pepper, none had elicited the feelings she was describing, and he suddenly wondered if he was even capable of being in love.

"Oh," he said, and heavily sat down on the edge of the bed. A strange bubbly feeling prickled his throat, and then chuckles escaped him, unexpected, and they transformed themselves in honest to God laughter while Pepper looked on, shocked. Was that what Loki had meant by fate? Putting the two fuck-ups together so they wouldn't end up alone? Wow. Wasn't that a brilliant idea? That way they could be miserable together!

"You think this is funny?" Pepper shrieked. Yay, the anger spiel was back! God, what a day! And he hadn't even had coffee yet!

"No, it isn't funny at all. It's ironical, that's all."

"What ar—" Pepper stopped mid-sentence, her eyes roaming over Tony's shoulders, and when she looked back at him they were filled to the brim with hurt. "Where is she?"

Tony blinked, confused. What 'she'? "Who?"

"Don't fuck with me Tony!" Oh shit! Pepper had cursed at him. She never did that! And he didn't even know what he had done wrong this time! How fair was that? "What do you think I am, blind? I can see your bed has been slept in on both sides! So, where is she? Did she leave earlier this morning? Don't you dare tell me she's still in here!"

"Oh God!" he said out loud, even though he didn't mean to; belatedly slapping a hand over his mouth hadn't helped either, strangely enough. New tears joined the dried ones. "No, Pep! It's not what you think!" Fuck! How the hell was he supposed to explain the whole Loki situation? It wasn't as if 'no, I didn't sleep with some woman, I didn't even sleep _with_ anyone, I just slept _next to_ my soulmate, who happens to be a male-female alien – oh, and an ex-villain' was going to go over very well.

Without a word Pepper strode towards the walk-in closet and slammed the doors open. She then turned back towards him, breathing hard and fury distorting her features, and he couldn't help but stand up and back away – anything to get away from those nails and stilettos. But that put him between her and the bathroom – as if he was trying to block her, and that certainly didn't look good. Especially since the bathroom was actually occupied.

"Is she in there?" Shit, shit, shit! All hell would break lose if Pepper found a locked door… Tony stepped aside when she stomped towards it, leaving little round imprints in the carpet where those dangerous shoes hit the floor. He looked at the closed door just like she did, and when she'd find out the handle wouldn't turn… No, wait, the door wasn't locked! It was even slightly ajar! Right! Of course that arsehole had been listening in!

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Loki had successfully used the shower, and it certainly was an interesting way to wash oneself. Even though he preferred the ease and rapidity of a cleaning spell, he could not use it now, and these mortal showers where certainly practical, in a non-magical environment. And the strange liquid soaps were not too bad either.

Loki had just finished drying his hair as dry as it could get with a towel – which meant it was pretty wet still, and, unfortunately, even more wavy then their natural dry state – and he was opening the door, hand on the handle, when he heard more than one voice coming from the bedroom. He let the door go, but as it was ajar now, he could hear pieces of the conversation being held on the other side of it.

When he heard Anthony tell Miss Potts – for Jarvis had told him everything he needed to know about Virginia 'Pepper' Potts – that, of course, he loved her, Loki had not been surprised, and yet he felt a pinch in his heart that he could not explain. Why would Anthony not love some insignificant woman? Why should he care about who Anthony loved? Their being soulmates did not make the mortal his; especially here on Midgard.

He contemplated closing the door again; he did not need to hear this. And yet his curiosity kept him where he was. Anthony's description of love was certainly lacking, and his reaction – laughter and gloom – to Potts' exaggerated portrayal was certainly odd. When the question of cheating came up, he was the one who almost laughed out loud. He was definitely not some woman Anthony had charmed into his bed!

Anthony's growing panic while Potts searched for this elusive woman was amusing, until it suddenly turned to anger, and the door was thrown open so fast it would have hit him in the head if he had not jumped back in time. Showing obvious surprise at the entrance of the red-headed mortal was anything but difficult.

"Uhm, hello," he said as he took hold of the towel at his waist, as if he wanted it to hide more than it could. His eyes flicked from one mortal to the other, full of uncertainty. "I'm sorry, did you need the bathroom?"

Both Midgardians looked at him, gobsmacked, but for very different reasons. Potts was looking him up and down, probably astounded the woman she was expecting wasn't there, and Anthony… Anthony was looking at him as if he had never seen him before, and it was not surprising. Transformations that did not require any true transformation; those were the type of manipulation he preferred. There was nothing more thrilling than fooling someone with mere acting.

"Your hair is curly?" Anthony exclaimed, and this time Loki was the one to blink in surprise. Oh. Was that what had disturbed the mortal? What a curious man Anthony was.

He pulled at one of the locks framing his face. "It isn't _that_ curly. And I normally straighten them."

"Why?"

"They used to be shorter, and straight looked better. I've straightened them for… a very long time."

"Huh. Well, I think it looks good like this. Less… menacing, somehow." Anthony grinned, and Loki could only reciprocate. He was certain Anthony did not remember their first encounters fondly – when his hair was straight and slicked back, and Thanos was still in his head – contrary to, perhaps, the time when he, and his hair, must have looked dreadful.

"What are you doing here?" Potts suddenly asked. "Tony, what is he doing in your bathroom?"

Anthony opened his mouth to speak, but Loki was faster. "This was the closest unoccupied bathroom, and Mr Stark graciously let me use it."

Anthony blinked at Loki in surprise, while Potts turned to him for confirmation. Loki had left the choice to Anthony; he could tell his lover whatever he wished – perhaps the truth, perhaps a fancy tale full of lies. It did not matter to Loki. Or rather, it did, but he would not – could not – blame Anthony for choosing lies as the easy way out.

"I– He– God damn it! Why is my life so complicated?" Anthony sighed and turned away from them, walking back to the middle of the room and facing the view. The woman followed after a glance at Loki, so Loki stepped out of the bathroom as well. Anthony suddenly turned back towards them. "Pep', this is Loki. Loki, meet Pepper."

Potts' expression had been inflexible, and now it morphed into deep frown. She stared hard at his face and her eyes were stormy, but her melodious voice sounded deceptively sincere when she said: "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Loki lied with a friendly smile, and he did not have to look at Anthony to feel him frown.

"So, uhm. With the whole battle and stuff, everyone was exhausted, so I asked them all back to the tower – I mean, there are a couple of pretty good beds here, no need to go elsewhere, right. But it turned out a couple of guest rooms are pretty much trashed, so people had to pair up – I can't let people sleep on these horrible couches – and Loki here… slept in my bed. You know, next to me. And he's not… a woman. So you can stop freaking out."

Potts' expression hadn't changed throughout, but she had crossed her arms, her manicured nails tapping rhythmically on one fabric-covered arm. "I met some of the Avengers downstairs, yes. And I can understand you wanting to help them out for the night. What I don't get, is why you let _him_ stay. Isn't he the one who attacked Stuttgart? And New York?"

"It's a long story, but he isn't our enemy. Not anymore. He helped us!"

It was Loki's turn to cross his arms over his bare chest. Not that it was not funny to watch these mortals interact, but he very much disliked being talked about as if he was not there.

"But you even let him sleep in your bed! How can you trust him not to suddenly kill you in your sleep?" Potts screeched, her voice unpleasantly increasing in volume.

"Because he can't!" Anthony yelled back.

Potts scoffed. "I thought he was a super strong alien like Thor? How would you stop him?"

"I wouldn't need to stop him, he can't kill me without dying himself!"

Silence fell while Potts glowered, and Anthony's mouth opened again, but no sound came out. Loki was surprised by Anthony's choice to suddenly allude to their bond; she would ask for an explanation, no doubt. Of course, Loki understood he would want to tell his lover about his situation; the timing just might not be the best.

"Perhaps I should leave the room? I didn't mean to interrupt your earlier conversation." And the fact that somewhere deep inside he felt satisfaction at the thought of this woman rejecting Anthony had nothing to do with his sudden urge to leave. No, he just wanted to go look for some fresh clothes somewhere else. _Do keep telling yourself that_.

"What? Oh, no, that's okay, you don't have to go." Anthony's gaze was pleading, and panic crept along their bond.

"Dreading a conversation will not change the outcome, Anthony." And with that he turned around and walked out of his soulmate's room.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Tony watched Loki walk out in dismay, and he was torn between calling after him – which would be pathetic – and sticking his tongue out at him – which would be childish. But the arsehole had called him 'Anthony' just to spite him, he was sure! And really! _Dreading a conversation will not change the outcome_ , blah blah blah! Saying nothing at all would have been just as helpful!

"I don't understand anything anymore, Tony. What is happening?" Now that they were alone Pepper looked so vulnerable again, and he didn't know what to do. He wanted to hug her, but he doubted she would appreciate it right now. Maybe she wouldn't ever again. Not after she knew everything. After all, she already knew he didn't love her with the same intensity as she did him – a fact that still surprised and saddened him. Learning all this cosmic bullshit and tales about fate… It would break her heart, he knew.

But he could not exactly keep it from her, now could he? It was the truth – Tony knew that now, even though he absolutely hated it. If she learned of it some other way – and he didn't doubt she would, sooner or later – then she would hate him for having kept it from her. For not having told her the moment he knew. Because even before they became a couple, she – and Rhodey – were his only true friends, his best friends. And best friends owed each other the truth – he had learned that lesson well enough.

Tony heavily sat down on the couch facing the city, and looked at the clear, almost blue sky. He took a deep breath, and started, refusing to look at her. It would be easier to not know what would go through her mind. And it would have been easier if he'd had at least had a coffee or ten. "Okay, this is gonna sound super weird. Like aliens-invading-New-York weird. So please, don't think I'm suddenly off my rocker or something." Tony paused, gathering his thoughts. How the hell did you say something like this?

"So, er… I was confronting Loki in the penthouse, before the alien army arrived, and we were having passive-aggressive conversation, when he tried to mind-control me with his sceptre." Pepper gasped, and Tony quickly continued before she could interrupt. "But he didn't succeed because of my Arc reactor. He didn't like that, so he tried to choke me—"

"What?" Pepper shrieked.

"— and that's when the strange mojo kicked in. Turns out we—" Jesus, this was hard! "Well, we have, uhm, a link, like magical link, that attacked the guy that was controlling Loki, 'cause it turns out Loki was not the only one controlling people. So Loki was there screaming on the floor, the magic control spell thing being kinda burned out of him, and then he passed out and turned blue – like, his skin was blue, because he's an alien. And when he woke up, he told me everything he knew, and helped me defeat the Chitauri army with the nuke and close the space portal. And when we went to get shawarma all together with the Avengers, he healed my hand with magic. And because he was really weak at the time, there was some kind of dangerous ice spell stuff that activated itself, but it couldn't hurt me because of that… link. And when we came back here, Thor and Loki told me what the link was, and I gotta say I didn't believe them at first 'cause it sounds so much like fairy tale bullshit, but… The things I can feel, Pepper! They are so eerily real!"

Tony turned to look at her now, but looked away when he saw her tears. And he hadn't even said it yet! From the corner of his eye he saw her shaking her head. "I don't understand what you're saying, Tony."

"Right. I didn't really explain. I don't think I really can, it's like super complicated and full or weird names, but the two Asgardian yahoos said something like: there is some sort of well were souls are born, and then they go up a tree or something where they are split in two, and given to people when they are born. And when people die, their soul goes to hell, where they reunite with their other half-soul and go back to the tree to be reborn or melted down or whatever. But sometimes something very rare can happen, something so rare that even gods think it's a myth, and that is those half-souls meeting before death. And guess whose life got fucked up again?"

Pepper didn't say anything, but she had her hand plastered against her mouth, so he couldn't blame her. "You guessed it, it's me. Turns out that went we touched back when Loki was still controlled, our half-souls connected and, like, fused together to become one soul again or something? And that is what something he called soul magic that freed him from the control, but now we have a bond. Like, on Asgard they don't even consider us two people anymore, but one person. We have a soul bond, and something like a magic bond, and a mind bond and what not. I mean, I know when he lies because it tingles behind my Arc reactor, and I can feel his feelings when I concentrate."

Tony closed his eyes to help him focus. "Right now, he's… Woah! Okay. Uhm, he's angry, and kinda… nostalgic, maybe? And exasperated, definitely. I'm guessing he's with Thor." And he wasn't only guessing. Now that he was trying to follow that weird-arse bond, he could pinpoint Loki's exact location. Twenty yards behind him, and four yard to the right. "Oh, and I think it comes with some kind of location voodoo, because I know exactly where he is. Maybe that's why one of the soulmate rules is not being far apart."

"Soulmate?" came her tiny sounding voice.

Tony blinked. "Ah. I guess I managed to say it after all. Yeah, soulmate. Looks like it's a thing after all. Like magic and aliens. All real, it turns out. Who would have guessed?" He knew he was rambling, but he knew her words, or her silence, would be even worse. "Not me, that's for sure. They kinda broke my whole 'one hundred percent science' belief system. And they won't even give me a refund, the bastards. Loki told me to blame Lady Fate. If ever I meet the woman I'll give her a piece of my mind, no kidding!"

"Tony!"

"Yeah Pep'?"

"What are you saying? I'm not sure I—"

"Loki and I are soulmates, we are connected in strange ways, like I can feel what he feels and vice versa I'm sure, and we both gotta stay not too far away from each other, just like in fucking fairy tales, because that is what real life looks like nowadays."

"Soulmates?" She stepped in front of him, partly hiding the view, and he squinted up at her in the strong light.

"You already asked that. Yeah, soulmates. Not in the romantic way, but in the 'fate screwed me over' way. I'm looking at this like a kind of Vulcan-like bond." As in permanent, and marriage, and mind melds and shit. Fuck fiction, life was way weirder.

"Soulmates."

"I know this is strange, I get that, but could you please stop repeating that? I'd prefer to forget about it, you know!"

"You. And that… alien that attacked Earth? Soulmates?" She suddenly started to laugh, and a few seconds later abruptly stopped. "You're soulmates, and so you _slept_ with him?"

"Wha— Woah, hell no! No, are you crazy? He's a guy!" Wait, he wasn't, was he? "Or maybe not," Tony amended, "he's some sort of weird alien hermaphrodite, he said. But that doesn't make him a woman either! Of course I didn't sleep with him!" There might have been some involuntary cuddling going on in the end there, but he couldn't be blamed for crazy things he did in his sleep, could he? "I didn't want this! You know that, right?"

Pepper's legs buckled all of a sudden, and she dropped to her knees with a thud; Tony hadn't even had time to stretch out an arm to catch her. She swept a hand over her face, and held it there.

"Are you okay?"

She sharply looked up. "What do you think? Of course I'm not okay, Tony! Today I've confirmed what I've long suspected: that my boyfriend never considered me anything more than a friend with benefits! And now you tell me you were _fated_ to meet that crazy alien villain because you two are _soulmates_?" Tony could only stare at her, mouth agape, while her anger rose and she scrambled back up. "I hope you two live happily ever after, like in the 'fucking fairy tale' you mentioned earlier. I don't want to have anything to do with it!" And she strode towards the door and threw it open.

Tony sprung up and followed. "Pep'! What do you mean?"

She abruptly spun around, and he had to swing his weight backwards so they wouldn't collide. "Are you stupid? We're over Tony! Now leave me alone!" She turned around again, hand on the handle, and walked out.

"Pepper!"

His only answer was the panel being yanked shut in his face with a bang.

* * *

Fufufufu! Kukukuku! Nyahahaha! (These are my Machiavellian laughs. Never mind me ;))

Poor, poor Pepper XD Tony managed to throw it all in her face at once! Ain't that horrible? (Yes! Buahahaha! I got rid of Pepper!) Sorry Pepper lovers, but the Pepperony is over :p

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	10. Chapter 10

Hello-ki, dear puny mortal readers! This chapter starts with a Loki POV beginning, timeline-wise, roughly in the middle of the last chapter — you know, when Loki leaves Tony and Pepper to their disastrous talk (see 'previously on ASAF' for the ending of that one), and walks out of the room only clad in a towel. You're welcome :p

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _Tony sprung up and followed. "Pep'! What do you mean?"_

 _She abruptly spun around, and he had to swing his weight backwards so they wouldn't collide. "Are you stupid? We're over Tony! Now leave me alone!" She turned around again, hand on the handle, and walked out._

" _Pepper!"_

 _His only answer was the panel being yanked shut in his face with a bang._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 10**

When Loki stepped outside Anthony's room, still only clad in a towel, he stopped short, wondering what to do. He could wait here, in the empty corridor – even if that meant anyone could come up on him, and he would be alone and unarmed; he could use some magic for self-defence, but he would prefer letting his core heal correctly instead. Or he could go to the only other person who would defend him against any enemies – such as a certain Clint Barton – no matter their current relationship. And Loki really did not want to count on _him_ , however… The door was just in front of him, and it was open to boot.

Inside, the bed was a mess, armour had been haphazardly thrown all over the couch and floor, and – if this room's layout was the exact opposite of Anthony's – faint singing was coming from the bathroom. Knowing Thor, he must be bellowing some inane drinking song while lying in his bath, and the thick walls and door were mercifully muffling it to a low hum.

Loki sat down on the edge of the mattress, and tried to tune out the feelings slowly pulsing through the bond, arriving by tiny waves, like ripples of water licking the shore, pushed by a repetitive beat. Yet even though he tried to muffle them, to bar them entry, to silence the bond altogether, they still left an imprint in a corner of his mind, impossible to forget. He would do his best to ignore them instead.

The bathroom door opened and Thor walked out, completely naked. Loki had never understood his complete lack of propriety. Thor did not care whoever saw him in his full glory – he probably liked showing off his body. That was not surprising at all. Yet the oaf could at least think of all the people who did not want to _see_ him naked – he had even left the door to the corridor open, for Yggdrasil's sake! Loki, for instance, would prefer not to see him at all, even if not a single inch of his skin was visible.

"What are you doing here, Brother?" Loki sighed. He was sick of having to repeat himself. They were not brothers! "Not that I am not glad to see you, I just did not exp—"

"Anthony is talking to his lover."

"Oh. I'm very sorry for that, Brother."

Loki huffed. As if he should care! But of course Thor would draw idiotic conclusions based on those stupid myths! It was not because every tale sported a romantic involvement that Anthony and him would be the same! Tales always made everything seem better; battles were glorious when told around a camp fire, but when your life was on the line and blood was coating every surface, it was anything but glorious.

"Mr Odinson, Mr Friggason, the clothes that Sir ordered have arrived and will be brought up shortly," Jarvis announced.

Thor stared at him very oddly, and it took Loki a few moments to realise why, but he had no intention of explaining himself. "Friggason?" Thor prompted, his blue eyes piercing through Loki's defences as if they were made of elven butter, and Loki looked away with a sigh.

"I refuse any name referring to any of my true parents, or false parents I never wanted. Only Mother remains in my heart – I merely hope she will not refute her connection to me now. She may not be my mother by blood, but she is the only mother I ever had, and ever shall have."

"Of course Mother will not repudiate you! She will be honoured that you chose to bear her name. Father, on the other hand, will be disappointed."

A humourless smile lifted Loki's lips. "Yes, well that is nothing out of the ordinary, it is? And either way, I do not care what Odin thinks. He is nothing to me now! Nothing!"

Thor's face was full of sadness. "What about me, Loki? Am I nothing to you as well?"

Loki wanted to spit in his face and tell him that, yes, he couldn't care less about Thor, but that would be a lie, and he was so sick of lies. He had always looked up to his big brother Thor; Thor the perfect warrior, Thor the beloved prince, and Loki had always hated him as much as he had loved him. Now that he knew they were not even linked by blood, now that Thor's golden perfection was so much further out of reach, he resented all the moments of his childhood where Thor had been his whole world. Yet it was not Thor's fault they were not born of the same parents – they had both equally been kept in the dark. What he truly resented was Thor's capacity to completely disregard their lack of true familial link.

"You are more a brother to me than Odin ever was a father," was all he said, but to Thor it might as well have been a full declaration of brotherly love, if his blinding smile and crushing hug was anything to go by. Hugged by a naked Thor – in all his years this was probably a first, and he would prefer it to be a last as well.

A throat was cleared in the direction of the open door, and Loki did his best to push against his bloody oaf of a brother, to no avail. He tried to turn his head to see who was there, but he only managed a half turn as Thor's beefy arm and thick head were in the way. Still, he caught the eye of an unfazed Natasha Romanoff, and the fleeting gaze of a blushing Steve Rogers.

"Thor, if you do not let me go right this second, I shall spell your nether regions bright green the moment I am able to do so."

At least that seemed to work; never had Thor jumped back as quickly from anything before. He appeared to realise the presence of his fellow Avengers then. "Greetings, good Captain, Lady Widow." And still he did not care for his nudity. Loki rubbed his face with a hand, exasperated. This was going to be a very long day.

"We've got some clothes for you, courtesy of Stark. It looks like you need them," the redhead said. As Rogers, who was the one holding a pile of bags, was still motionless – and speechless, and red in the face – Romanoff picked them up instead and walked over to Thor. "You even get to choose between outfits. And you're lucky, it looks like Jarvis has impeccable taste. Except when it comes to Clint's clothes. I wonder why." She said the last sentence while glancing at Loki, as if _he_ had anything to do with this!

"Do they perhaps contain the colour yellow?"

The woman's eyes narrowed. "How do you know that? Did you do something to them?"

"Not at all. Anthony mentioned the colour 'tweety' yellow, though I have not the faintest idea which shade that is supposed to be."

Romanoff's eyes widened, and a corner of her mouth spasmed; Loki was certain she was trying not to smile. "Stark. That explains the shirt with a big Tweety on it. Or the yellow boxers with the 'I tawt I taw a puddy tat' line on the back. I take it back, Jarvis, you always have impeccable taste."

"Thank you, Agent Romanoff."

"All right, you two, I want you down in five for… I guess it's called brunch at this hour. And take Stark with you." She turned around and walked out, followed by a slightly less blushing soldier.

Thor had flung the bags on the bed and had started emptying some of them on it. Loki quickly gathered those with his name written in Midgardian letters, and moved to the bathroom. The bags contained various styles; each had a complete outfit, from the strange mortal underwear to their curious footwear, some of them more formal than others. The colour combinations were rather well chosen, so Loki simply took one of the bags that he thought contained 'casual' wear and started to get dressed. This way he might perhaps look more approachable.

He was combing his hair with his fingers and battling with his parting that simply refused disappear without the help of magic, when a strong wave of foreign panic blurred his reflection and he had to hold onto the washbasin cabinet to stay upright. He was already halfway through Thor's room when Anthony's door was jerked open by Potts.

"Pep'! What do you mean?" said Anthony's voice behind her, and she turned towards him.

"Are you stupid? We're over, Tony! Now leave me alone!"

Anthony had barely the time to cry out "Pepper!" before she tugged the door shut with unnecessary force. Her eyes landed on Loki then, and her glare could have melted down all the glaciers of Jötunheimr. "He's all yours!" she spat before stomping down the corridor, her oddly formed shoes making an awfully impractical racket as she went.

Thor was still shrugging on a striped button-up shirt, his denim trousers still opened and hanging low on his hips. "Perhaps you should go see Tony, Brother." Loki was not so certain he should. Surely the mortal would like some time to process the rejection of his lover – and yet he felt drawn to that closed door, and against all reason he stepped up to it and knocked.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Tony stood stock still in front of the door, eyes unfocused and mind muddled. He wasn't sure what had just happened. Had Pepper…? Yes, she had broken up with him. It wasn't really surprising, given the circumstances. His too weak feelings. Loki, his soulmate. His recent recklessness. And all the times they _almost_ broke up, and he had managed to change her mind with kisses and promises he never held. He hadn't been a very good boyfriend. Honestly, he'd probably been an abysmally bad one. But that was who he was. Unless it had to do with the strength of love he should have had? He didn't know. He didn't know anything anymore.

Someone knocked on the door, and he couldn't care less. Still, his hand moved to the handle, and he didn't stop it; he knew who it was. Loki was located just a few feet in front of him. He paused his movement, fingers curled around the polished metal, closed his eyes and gave up the struggle. His palm pushed down and pulled, and the door opened slowly.

Loki was now fully clothed; he was wearing a forest green low V tee-shirt sporting some artistically drawn tree encircled by a snake eating its own tail, a pair of black skinny jeans with various rips from thigh to knee, and a pair of black-grey converse shoes with dark green laces. His hair had dried a bit, making the waves bouncier, and he had swept most of it to one side of his head, some of the locks partially obscuring one emerald eye. One thing was certain; J.A.R.V.I.S. knew how to pick out an outfit for Viking-styled aliens. Loki suddenly looked so much younger, and so very human.

Tony, on the other hand, was still only wearing sweatpants, and he was pretty sure he must look older than his age, and kind of zombie-like. He stepped back with a sigh and let Loki inside. Not that he wanted to see him right now. Not that he wanted to see anyone. But at the same time it could serve as a distraction. A distraction for his confusion, because he wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel.

Loki stepped up to the windows without a word and looked out. The view must be just as alien to him as Asgard would be to Tony. The male body standing there, in his room, with the black, curly hair, the large shoulders and narrow hips, the great height… It was wrong. It should have been straight strawberry blond, curvy, womanly, and high heels cheatingly making her taller. It should have been Pepper. But because of Loki, it wasn't.

Tony walked inside his giant, overflowing closet so that he would not have to see. While he picked out a tee-shirt, he berated himself for his ridiculous self-pitying, and especially his lying to himself. Really, even if he hadn't suddenly stumbled upon his soulmate – courtesy of Fate if Loki was to be believed – his relationship would probably not have lasted that long anyway. It might even have ended today as well, given the Tony-almost-got-killed-by-aliens-and-a-portal-to-outer-space situation.

He didn't want Loki here right now, because it reminded him even more of his fresh and still bloody break up, and yet… And yet while he dressed, the silent presence of Loki, even though out of sight, felt reassuring. It shouldn't, Tony was certain of that. But there was someone out there who would always be there for him, in some way. Someone who couldn't flee him even if they wanted to; they were linked for life, linked in life, right? No matter how much Tony fucked up – which he always did – Loki wouldn't be able to leave him, or not for long anyway. Of course, the opposite was true as well, and he'd have to put up with that mischievous, super strong (and old) voodoo-wielding alien, but considering everything… Maybe it wasn't all that bad. Especially if they managed to become friends.

Tony stepped out, fully clothed, in a style that in the end looked rather similar to Loki's, if only a bit less form-fitting. A red tee with a crown and 'King of the Lab' printed on it, baggy-ish blue jeans, and a pair of worn, silvery-gold sneakers. And why not; casual was great. He wasn't going anywhere today. If it was up to him, he wouldn't even see anyone, he'd just sleep for a week. Or lock himself up in his workshop when he couldn't sleep.

"We have been summoned to something called 'brunch'," Loki informed him, still looking at the cityscape.

Great… That meant that everyone would be there, _together_ , to eat; he so wasn't in the mood for this! "Let's go, then," he sighed. He walked out of his room and down the corridor, with Loki silently following half a step behind him, all innocent-looking with his hands held together behind his back. Tony chose the stairs, going down slowly so they wouldn't arrive just yet, and his protesting muscles made him regret it instantly. Still, he was a stubborn son of a bitch, so instead of taking the elevator on the next floor, he went down all four floors on foot.

When they arrived in the kitchen he had never intended to really use – he had tucked this area in a forgettable corner for that exact purpose – he found all his 'guests' sitting around the oblong table, on a variety of chairs they had cannibalised from other parts of his penthouse. And on said table there were heaps of food he knew hadn't been hidden anywhere in his fridge or cabinets.

"You people don't have the same definition of brunch as me," he commented as his gaze swept over the assortment that had been displayed. Coloured boxes of cereals, multiple types of breads and spreads, even every possible food for a full English breakfast were available; but also, again, pizza, and cheeseburgers, and a bunch of different sandwiches, and something that smelled like Thai, and was that a half-empty platter of sashimi? And the strangest of it all was the inexistent order of the dishes – you didn't get to see glazed donuts right next to sushi every day.

Two seats had helpfully been left vacant between Thor and Capsicle; for some reason Tony still didn't feel very comfortable being close to Steve Rogers, his childhood hero, but when he saw what Thor had on his plate, he opted not to sit next to _him_. If he wasn't mistaken, that was some sort of goat cheese sandwiched between strawberry Pop-Tarts, Nutella adorned with corn flakes on that slice of Quattro Stagioni and a croissant drowned in milk and dripping with some kind of syrup. At least this made him momentarily forget his own problems!

Tony quickly sat down to try and forget that vision of horror, and grabbed a bowl from the pile of clean plates sitting in the middle of the table. He filled it with Fruit Loops and milk, and while it soaked – he didn't like them crunchy – he filled a mug to the brim with coffee and held on to the thermos it came from; this was now his coffee, all of it, and it was probably not even enough. All this food was most likely his as well – J.A.R.V.I.S. had probably been tasked to provide it, which meant Tony had paid for it all. Not that he minded, he had more money than he could spend – and God knew he had tried – but if he had paid for this coffee he could certainly keep it. It was the only thing his kitchen never lacked, so they couldn't blame him for taking it all.

Next to him Loki seemed at a loss, and between two sips of this divine black brew, Tony wondered if he should help or not. Perhaps Loki didn't want any help… But if the danger was the same disaster as what his brother was munching on… Tony would take the risk of angering his soulmate any day.

"What d'you want to eat? Something cold? Warm? Sugary or not sugary? All of the above? Brunch can be both breakfast and lunch, so whatever is fine."

"I'm not certain what mortals eat depending on the time of day. I'm not familiar with most of Midgard's many dishes." Loki looked the table over. "Many, strange dishes," he added.

"What do you usually eat in the morning?"

"I suppose you mean, what did I use to eat on Asgard? And not, what was I given when I was imprisoned by the Mad Titan's minions." Right, Tony hadn't thought of that. Loki might not have eaten anything he liked for quite some time. "Either way, it is irrelevant. There is nothing comparable served here."

How helpful! He could have at least described it or something! Well, he'd just have to try things out, then. Tony put a spoon in his bowl and pushed the whole thing towards Loki. "How about you try this? It's called Fruit Loops." Loki picked up a few engorged, unnaturally coloured cereals and slowly put them in his mouth. His face didn't show any change, but Tony knew this was definitely not it. He took back the bowl and the spoon that had been plunged back into it – alien saliva, oh well… It probably wouldn't kill him. "Okay then. Let's try something else. Maybe in link with your accent. Who knows, maybe it will predispose you towards their food as well."

He took a new plate, stood up and went around the table, picking up bacon that was still warm enough, fortunately, and the last two fried eggs. He skipped the horrifying beans, and it took him a while to locate the sausages, but when everything except the toasts were on the plate, he put it down in front of Loki, and walked over to the toaster. Slices had been forgotten inside it, so he put them to quickly warm again, and waited next to it. And all this time, eyes had followed him without pause. Loki's eyes, which he expected, and Clint's eyes, because he was a paranoid bastard.

He locked gazes with the archer and flicked an eyebrow in question. "Say, Stark—" Clint started.

"Tony," Tony grunted, annoyed at the constant repetition. He hated having to repeat himself.

Clint ignored him. "Was it just a one-night fling or do we have a new Mrs Stark in the making?"

Tony blinked in confusion. What the hell was Clint going on about? Did he know about him and Pepper, and their now non-existent relationship? If he did, he sure was an arsehole to bring it up less than an hour after the fact! Though the question was, how the fuck did he know?

"Don't look so surprised, you're the one who let me follow that guy," Clint said, pointing at Loki, "on my phone. Too bad I didn't get audio, because I would have loved to hear what your girlfriend said. Though seeing how she stormed out, I guess it's ex-girlfriend now. Poor woman. Having your boyfriend cheat on you with an alien psychopath, that's gotta be hard."

There were so many shocked eyes on him now that all he managed to do was bury his face in his hand and grunt his exasperation.

* * *

Naked-Thor/towel-clad-Loki hug! I hope the Thorki fans out there appreciated the image XD And Clint is being such a bastard – don't worry, I don't hate Clint or anything, I didn't intend to make him this way, he just turned out like this… Sorry, Clint :p

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	11. Chapter 11

Hey, people! I see you all hate Clint because of me XD I hope you won't be too disappointed by this chapter, then :p

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _"Don't look so surprised, you're the one who let me follow that guy," Clint said, pointing at Loki, "on my phone. Too bad I didn't get audio, because I would have loved to hear what your girlfriend said. Though seeing how she stormed out, I guess it's ex-girlfriend now. Poor woman. Having your boyfriend cheat on you with an alien psychopath, that's gotta be hard."_

 _There were so many shocked eyes on him now that all he managed to do was bury his face in his hand and grunt his exasperation._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 11**

The silence that followed the surprised gasps and looks was broken by the toast suddenly jumping out of the toaster, making Tony flinch. Wow, that was such a low blow! And Clint was a jerk. And okay, people always expected him to sleep _with_ someone the moment he slept _next_ to someone. That he understood; he had been known as one of the greatest playboys out there, and they could not know he had never cheated on Pepper. So he understood they might think him capable of doing it. But! But, more importantly, he was completely, utterly straight, and everyone should know that by now! And Loki was completely, utterly not a woman!

Or, well… Loki was some sort of strange sex, whatever, but he wasn't a woman! He just looked like a regular guy! If regular guys looked like freaking super models. Still, visually one hundred percent a guy – or from what Tony had seen, of course. He didn't want to see the rest to verify if there was, like, a… second… hole. No, he didn't want to know at all how strange alien bodies worked! Just like he didn't wonder at all how far the darker ridges on Loki's blue skin truly went. That would be just wrong.

His strange thoughts had derailed his indignation and burgeoning anger – and on the edge of his mind, he felt a foreign curiosity touch him. Yeah, this situation was curious all right! Tony took a steeling breath and picked up the two toasts by their slightly burnt corners, and brought them to Loki's now half-eaten plate. Obviously, proteins were more popular than colourful sugar lumps – contrary to Thor's general food preferences, it would seem. The more Tony knew about these two, the more opposing characteristics he saw, and he guessed they must have had a hell of a brotherly relationship over the years – the millennia. And 'hell' was the most important word there.

Tony sat back down in front of his Fruit Loops, and looked Clint squarely in the eye. The archer had only seen what was going on in the corridor, and for him, with Tony and Loki going in at night, Tony's half-naked state when Pepper arrived, and Loki's towel-clad body when he got out must have looked very compromising indeed. Still, it wasn't the kind of conclusion one should make with so little fact; especially in front of an audience.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Clint, but I only got into _the same bed_ as a god, I didn't get to _bed_ one."

"Aww, weren't your charms good enough? Godly expectations are a bitch, right?"

A gasp came from his right, and he expected Steve was probably affronted by the whole conversation. Even Natasha was showing some emotion on her face – like she thought about cuffing Clint on the head or something. But geez, why couldn't the guy just let it go? They'd shared a room for one fucking night, so what? From the corner of his eye he saw Loki put down his cutlery. Please, God, don't let him say anything to provoke Clint's crazy fantasies even more!

"His charms are… adequate." Wow, such praise! "I particularly like the little blue light." Okay. What the fuck? That was a pretty damn weird thing to like – it was kinda impractical, and ugly as hell, all the scarring and shit. But okay. "However…" Loki suddenly poked him – _poked him_! – with a finger and he almost fell of his chair because of it. "He is so weak; I'd be too afraid to hurt him, you see."

Tony was frantically rubbing his painful bicep. "Rude," he mumbled under his breath, glancing angrily at Loki, and Loki smirked, the bastard. From the other end of the table, the arsehole that had started this stupid conversation was gaping at them, even though Tony wasn't sure what could be gape-worthy here. Maybe it was the destruction of his little fantasy where Tony was flat on his back with an alien-god on top. Tony snorted. As if that was ever going to happen!

Whatever the reason for his shock had been, though, Clint recovered quickly. "Well if he's so weak, he won't be able to hurt _you_. So you could very well have done it the other way around!" Ah, so Clint had just turned that little fantasy of his around. Literally. Looked like he was the kinda stubborn guy that didn't let go of an idea until completely proven wrong – and even then, he might just stick to his own beliefs.

It took a few seconds, but it suddenly looked like Thor had finally understood what was being implied, because he hit the table with a fist – everything on it jumped up half an inch, and Tony heard the wood creak – and stood up, chair scraping, and face the incarnation of anger itself. "Did you just accuse my brother of being argr?" Clint recoiled as if struck – and who wouldn't, when the god of thunder was bellowing in your face like that.

Whatever the word was, Tony thought that maybe, given the conversation, it could be the alien equivalent of calling someone a 'fag', and he suddenly wondered how old-fashioned Asgard was. Humans were already quite slow on the uptake when it came to LGBT rights, but how did magical hammer-wielding beings deal with it? Thor had seemed fine with Loki and him being soulmates, or so Tony had thought; was it just that in Thor's head soulmates didn't almost automatically imply sexual relations – contrary to what Tony had first thought? Loki had said that on Asgard they'd be considered more than married, but… Geez, this was confusing!

Loki was laughing next to him, and quite uncontrollably as well. Every time it looked like he was calming down, he'd look Thor's way, see his confused face – ah, so Tony wasn't the only one not getting the whole situation here – and just laugh harder again. It took him a minute, but he managed to calm down enough to gasp: "Argr! You're so amusing, Thor! I am unable of being argr, not in the way you see it."

Thor looked completely puzzled, and now Tony was understanding this less and less. So, what, if Loki was unable of being – as in absolutely couldn't be – 'argr', did that mean that 'argr' wasn't 'gay' or something? Because even if he wasn't gay – and why should Tony care? Right, he didn't, he absolutely didn't – Loki was acting as if it was obvious that there was no way he was this 'argr' thing, and how was Thor supposed to know Loki couldn't be gay or something? Except they had been brothers for millennia and Thor should know this kind of thing. But Thor looked like Loki had said the strangest thing in the whole universe, or something. The longer Tony thought about it, the less he understood. What the hell was this conversation about, exactly? "What is this 'argr'?"

"Argr," Loki repeated slowly as if Tony had said it wrong, though he couldn't hear the difference. Wasn't that what he had said? Sure, he wasn't great-great at languages, but he was adequately good at them. He could say weird alien words!

"Argr," he said again, and Loki just smiled, amused. Whatever, who cared if he said it right? "What does it mean?"

"It can mean more than one thing, but in this case Thor uses it as… I think you would say, 'unmanly'. And that is absurd, because to be 'unmanly', one needs to be 'manly' first, which means that one needs to be a 'man', and I am not."

Thor looked completely thrown, and so did the rest of the assembly, except for Tony. If 'argr' meant 'unmanly', then Thor _had_ used it like he would have used 'fag' or the like – if he understood this right, it was an insult to those who 'bottomed'. No, an insult to 'men' who bottomed; as Loki wasn't a man, as he wasn't male; strictly speaking, he couldn't be gay, so it couldn't be seen as 'unnatural' for him to top or bottom either way, if Tony imagined this whole one sex society thing right. What was weird, though, was that Thor didn't know that.

"I do not understand," the blond said as if echoing Tony's thought.

A short chuckle escaped Loki's lips. "Why am I not surprised? I am Jötunn, Thor. Through and through." He paused, but when Thor's expression didn't change, he repeated: "Jötunn. I'll let you think about the consequences it has upon my sex."

After that lovely little sentence, it didn't take long for Thor to gasp and take a sudden step back, with his eyes so wide Tony wouldn't have been surprised if they'd just fallen out at the first jerk of his head. Tony turned to Loki. "Shouldn't he have known this like, way before I did? I thought they did alien sex-ed on Asgard. Right?"

"If Thor had thought a mere instant," Loki said, his tone betraying how much he had expected this outcome, "about what me being adopted truly meant, he would not have made a fool of himself."

"Bro—" Thor started, frowning, just to cut himself off, and Tony thought he knew exactly why he had.

"'Brother' doesn't really work, does it?" Tony commented. "Is there a word for a brother-sister sibling? Broster? Sither? Brister? Sother?"

Thor cleared his throat. "Brother. I… admit I had not thought of the implications of you being originally Jötunn. I apologise for my misplaced… outburst."

Loki looked as if Thor had just turned neon green, and the surprise and hint of wonder slipping along their bond made Tony think that Thor apologising was probably something very, very rare. Perhaps he should ask J.A.R.V.I.S. to store this super strange conversation on a drive somewhere just for the epic faces these two were making. And not just these two – the others were all looking from 'what the fuck just happened' to 'are you fucking shitting me?', and it was hilarious.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Clint was now arms outstretched and palms towards Loki, as if he could shield himself from the view that way. "Don't tell me you're saying what I think you're saying!"

Bruce was looking speculatively at Loki now, as if he'd be very interested in as many medical scans as technology could provide, and Natasha was calmly drinking whatever green-milky thing she was drinking, her face neutral once more. Steve was the only one completely lost, while Clint was effusively grossed out it seemed.

"So… What? He's what? Not a 'he'?" The archer gestured at Loki, but looked at Tony instead. As if Tony had all the answers! Why did people always assume Tony had all the answers? "Do we have to use 'xe' now? Is that what you're saying?"

"Xe?" Steve said, confused, and Loki quirked an eyebrow in question as well.

"I'm pretty sure you don't have to – I sure am gonna keep using 'he'." Tony threw his neighbour an overly enthusiastic fake smile. God, this conversation was otherworldly weird. "Loki did say he still felt 'male', didn't you dear? But yes, he is both – or neither – male and/or female. The way I understood it, Frost Giants are of only one sex. Hermaphrodites."

Now Clint openly stared at Loki with a sceptical frown, and next to Tony, Steve's mouth had frozen in a little 'o' form, and he was slowly turning beet red for some unfathomable reason. God only knew what was going on in that old brain of his. Conversation finally finished, Tony picked up his cooled mug of coffee to take a sip, only to immediately almost spit it out when the last voice he wanted to hear in the morning came from a darkened corner of the large room.

"How interesting! We'll make sure to run thorough tests to verify that little story of yours when Loki is in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody." How the fuck did Fury get here unnoticed?

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

When he heard that irritating voice, Loki closed his eyes to hide his anger, but the fork bending in his grip probably gave his state of mind away anyway. How could he have let his guard down enough not to feel that annoying mortal coming? And why did he still need to be pursued after all that had happened? Of course, they wanted to imprison him _because_ of all that had happened, but still, how much could you blame the puppet for the puppeteer's actions?

"Jarvis, how come my tower is being invaded yet again?"

"I am sorry, Sir. Some of my alarms and scanners have been disabled in yesterday's attack."

More S.H.I.E.L.D. agents entered the room, and Anthony's frown turned into a scowl. "Better put those alarms at the top of the repair list then, Jarv'. I'd like to be able to get rid of any pests _before_ they get near my food."

Fury ignored him and moved towards his target, his weapon pointed at Loki in a repetition of the events in the tower's lobby yesterday. "I have to cut of breakfast early. I hope you made the most of it, because you sure as hell ain't gonna see food like this anytime soon in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s special cell."

Anthony stood up. "What happened, Nick? Someone erase your memory? I'd swear we had the exact same conversation yesterday."

"If you're suggesting somebody fiddled with my mind, I gotta wonder if you held up your end of the bargain, Stark."

Anthony's hand landed on Loki's shoulder, the warmth and slight weight a completely unneeded silent support. "You mean keeping an eye on Loki here at all times? Sure did! I even stayed with him aaall night long! If that isn't dedication I don't know what is! And it looks like you remember our 'bargain' just fine, so I have to ask, what the fuck are you doing here, Nick?"

"We have prepared a better containment system," a woman with short brown hair answered instead, "so you don't have to keep watch twenty-four-seven." Loki couldn't help himself from tensing at the thought of being imprisoned yet again, and the hand on his shoulder tightened its grip in response.

"Thanks but no thanks!" Anthony said in a fake jovial tone.

Steve Rogers stood up now as well, placing himself, again, between Loki and Fury, and partially obscuring the view. "Perhaps I didn't make myself clear enough yesterday, so I'll try to explain better. Our main problem isn't how to confine Loki, but the fact that there's probably no need to do so."

"Speak for yourself," Barton murmured, too low for the two speaking mortals to hear, but Loki glanced his way anyway.

" _Probably_ ," Fury repeated, his tone sceptical and his face frozen in its eternal frown.

"Yes, probably. I haven't even had the time to talk to the guy yet, and you barge in, waving your guns! And you weren't even polite enough to knock!" Loki was glad that, for some unknown reason, Captain America had decided to be on his side, but the mortal's sense of priorities was really strange. He could feel Anthony shake slightly behind him, while amusement rippled along their soul bond.

"How about we assess Loki's need to be confined _while_ he's confined, you know, for the planet's safety and all that. You do understand that that is my main concern, Captain."

"And you understand that I cannot abide unnecessary confinement, Director."

Thor had been silently watching the exchange between the mortals, completely unconcerned, though now that the conversation did not seem to advance in any way, he decided to share with the assembly his – lack of – wisdom. "My brother cannot go anywhere without Friend Tony. Their soul bond will rebel."

"Their what now?" Fury asked, while from the other side of the table Barton said: "Soul what?"

"Their soul bond," Thor repeated, oblivious to the disbelieving stares he was collecting, Loki's – and probably Anthony's, if the foreign incredulity was anything to go by – included. He couldn't believe that oaf was just going to share their new 'state' with all these people, who bore only reluctant acceptance of his presence for some, and pure hostility from others. Especially if the blond idiot shared something along the lines of 'if one of them dies, the other will too', which might be understood as 'if you want to kill this god, you just have to sacrifice this one measly mortal'. "Loki and Tony are soulmates."

A very strange urge overcame Loki then; wanting to slap his own palm on his face – which made no sense whatsoever, because who would do such a nonsensical thing? The sound of flesh hitting flesh came from above him then, which meant Anthony had done the exact same movement he had been thinking of – or rather, the movement Anthony had been thinking of that had trickled over to his own mind. And he suddenly knew what it was called as well; a facepalm. How apt a name indeed! It also meant, however, that their bond was evolving alarmingly fast.

The sound of Anthony's 'facepalm' had broken the shocked silence, and among all the reactions, one was the loudest; Barton was laughing so hard he was wheezing, holding onto the table so that his quaking body didn't slide off his chair. The room's focus shifted to the mortal, and all watched him wipe the moisture at the corner of his eyes before he said: "I almost believed you for a second there! Asgardian jokes sure are funny! The perfect deadpan face almost did me in!"

Romanoff looked at her partner with a pitying expression. "You think he was joking? Didn't you look at them? Thor looked completely serious, Loki looked aghast and Stark looked like the incarnation of 'Oh my God he actually said it'. All three of them obviously _think_ it is true, and if even Stark believes it, I'm guessing it's _actually_ true." She paused, and while Barton stared at her, then at Anthony and him with an owlish expression, her calculating gaze took on the hue of mirth, and a leer stretched her lips. "Soulmates, huh? For some reason I have no difficulty whatsoever imagining that scenario."

Anthony scoffed. "Ugh, get your mind out of the gutter, Natasha! I already said we were only roommates—"

"I didn't mention anything of the sort, Stark, but if you insist. Are you sure there wasn't any 'mating' going on in there last night?"

A fist slammed against the table, and everyone fell silent again when they realised it had come from Bruce Banner. The Midgardian was breathing a bit heavily, and his eyes were tightly closed. When they opened there was a rapidly fading edge of green to them, and the closest S.H.I.E.L.D. agent flinched back. "Sorry. But could someone please explain what is going on?"

And even though Thor was the one to bring up the whole topic, all eyes turned to Anthony and Loki. "Well... It's—," Anthony started.

"Complicated," Loki continued.

"To say the least," Anthony added the moment Loki finished his word, which made it almost sound like the mortal was finishing his sentences, and that raised a few eyebrows. Anthony noticed as well, and cleared his throat. "And it's kind of a long story. In a mind-blowingly heretical kind of way. And I really don't need to hear it again, so if you want all the details I'm sure Jarvis can whip up a power-point or a nice little edited video of Loki's convoluted explanation."

It was silly, but Loki still bristled at the underlying insult. "My explanation was clear enough. You understood everything."

"Ah, yes, true, but I am not most people." And while Anthony received many glares for his conceited statement, Loki pondered the veracity of it. Indeed, Anthony was not most people; he was the being Lady Fate had given the other half of his soul to, and even if she had made the mistake of choosing a mortal, she might not have made the worst possible choice either – at least this Midgardian was intelligent enough to perhaps be able to keep up with him, while many Æsir before him had proven they could not.

"Tony. That still doesn't explain anything," Doctor Banner said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Yeah, okay, suffice it so say Loki and me are, like… connected. Our souls are. By magic and stuff. And that includes not being able to be far apart. We're now officially a package deal!"

Anthony was still standing behind his chair, so Loki could not see his face, but he was certain that, while some nervousness and a tiny amount of fear flooded their mind bond, the mortal was throwing the others a wide and jovial smile. Sometimes the mortal was visually like an open book, and other times he concealed his emotions very well. He was a surprising source of contradiction.

"Well, I've always wanted to lock your annoying arse up too, Stark, so you can always come with. We've got space enough," Fury retorted, and before the whole argument could start over, Thor slapped the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. amicably on the shoulder – with enough force to make the mortal's knees buckle – and smiled warmly at him while his eyes screamed menace.

"Let us speak of my brother elsewhere, there is no need to bother my friends further."

The dark-skinned mortal was foolish enough to ignore the hand on his shoulder. "Wait a second! He," Fury said, pointing at Loki, "stole the Tesseract, and he hasn't given it back yet!"

Thor's smile looked less like a smile and more like a snarl by the second. " _I_ have the Tesseract, and it is not something you should have had in the first place. I shall bring it back to Asgard, where it shall be safely stored away."

"You can't do that!" Fury protested, but Loki stopped listening. He just remembered something very important: the sceptre! Where was it? Most likely S.H.I.E.L.D. had it, and the Norns only knew what silly things they were doing with it! Furthermore, it could still be under Thanos' influence – even if it was not, it was still a weapon possibly created by the Mad Titan himself, so there could be nothing good about it. The magical core of it was powerful to say the least, and more than these mortals could handle.

"Where is the sceptre?" he asked, and while Fury's single, twitching eye focused on him, a disbelieving huff of breath came from Hawkeye's direction.

"As if we were gonna give you that one back!"

"I do _not_ want the sceptre 'back'! I'd prefer to never see the cursed thing again! But it is a dangerous weapon that belonged to the Mad Titan, and may be under his influence still! Such powerful magic cannot be left into your race's inexpert hands!"

"Do not worry, Brother, I shall take care of everything." And when had that ever worked out for Loki? Thor bodily pulled the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. out of the room, his hovering minions following, and Loki stared, appalled, as those responsible for his fate on Midgard walked away.

* * *

Aww, don't worry Loki, Thor will take care of everything! Or will he? Mwahahaha! Good luck, buddy, you're gonna need it, because I can be _evil_ :D

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	12. Chapter 12

Hey there! Another weekend, another chapter! Wow, this is chapter 12, so that means it's been 12 weeks already since I started publishing this fic. And to be honest, I don't know how long it's going to take until I finish – I have got no idea what the ending is going to be, so… I'm just going with the flow and letting inspiration, and our dear Loki and Tony, guide me. So it's up to them I guess! (I've never written anything as long as this fic is going to be XD It's amazing!)

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _"Do not worry, Brother, I shall take care of everything." And when had that ever worked out for Loki? Thor bodily pulled the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. out of the room, his hovering minions following, and Loki stared, appalled, as those responsible for his fate on Midgard walked away._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 12**

Loki had completely forgotten about the hand on his shoulder, until Anthony squeezed his muscles once more. "Well, if the 'royalty and ambassador from another planet' shtick doesn't work, I'll do something myself. Like hacking S.H.I.E.L.D. and shutting them out of their own system, or something. That usually makes them listen."

Yes, sabotage and blackmail usually did. Anthony used surprisingly dark methods to get what he wanted; not that Loki objected, he was a master of them himself, but he wouldn't have thought that it would be the first choice of a known Midgardian hero. The hand left his shoulder, and Anthony let himself fall back down in his chair, and filled another mug with strong-smelling coffee.

Doctor Banner slowly stood up. "I'm going back to the guest room if you don't mind, Tony. I need to… meditate."

"Oh, sure, go right ahead. And if you want some other quiet space, Jarvis can lead you to it, no problem." Banner left with a nod for his colleagues.

It was only then that Loki realised his distorted fork was still in his closed hand, and he opened it to look at the deformed metal. Straightening it out would have been so easy with magic; now though he would have to do it by hand, and he knew he would not be able to give it back its original form. Still he tried to flatten it as best he could, comparing it to Thor's unused fork as he went.

Cupboards opened and closed in the kitchen part of the room, and Loki observed Rogers search for whatever he was searching for. "Do you have anything in here, like boxes or something, to preserve all this food?"

Anthony stopped sipping. "No idea."

"It's _your_ kitchen."

"Yeah, but first off, it's new. Second, I haven't used it yet. And third, I never intended to use it, except for like the fridge or the coffeemaker, so I've got no idea. Jarvis knows. I think."

"Indeed I do, Sir. There is an assortment of Tupperware in the second cupboard on your right, Captain, and if it is not enough, may I suggest using cellophane, as well as…" Loki stopped listening then, the number of strange Midgardian words increasing exponentially, and he could not say he cared about what they did with the food.

Anthony stood up to join Rogers, and Romanoff started piling up some plates. Barton was the only Avenger who remained seated, and he looked at Loki with an impenetrable expression, arms crossed over his chest. Loki ignored that gaze, and swept his own over the dishes still displayed, full of so many foods he did not know.

Perhaps he should sample some, to know how many he found palatable, for further reference's sake. Using his newly reformed fork, he stabbed some different things on the plates and in the boxes in front of him – most of them were some sort of sweet kind of food, some of them better than others, and some overly saccharine. To wash away the taste of the last horribly colourful baked flat bread thing, he took Anthony's unfinished drink – his soulmate had apparently abandoned it anyway – and let the very bitter dark brown liquid invade his tongue.

It reminded him of something he had tasted long ago on Svartálfheimr, and he supposed it wasn't too bad as warm drinks went. Keeping the mug with him, Loki stood up and slowly made his way along the table, trying out some foods before they disappeared in transparent boxes and were moved to the refrigerated cupboard mortals preferred for food preservation – slowing the aging of the food with cold, instead of freezing the process with magic.

On one of his trips between kitchen counter and table, Anthony suddenly stopped short and pointed at him. "Hey! Is that my coffee?" Loki simply took another sip, and Anthony's lips formed a disbelieving little 'o'. "I can't believe it! As if you couldn't use your own mug!"

"I liked this one."

"Liar! It's red and gold, I'm sure you hate it! You just took _my_ coffee to annoy me!"

"I wanted to taste this beverage, so it was easier to take the one you had discarded."

This at least was true, and Anthony knew it; his mouth opened without sound, and closed again. A few seconds later, though, he continued his complaint. "I hadn't discarded it. It's coffee. I never don't finish my coffee. And a polite person wouldn't steal someone else's coffee anyway."

"Technically, according to Asgardian rule, I cannot steal anything from you, because we are one. Therefore, this is as much my mug and my coffee as it is yours."

Again Anthony's mouth opened, and no sound came out; this time he remained frozen, not even breathing, while Loki smirked at him and gulped down the rest of the beverage. He then walked over to the kitchen section, and put the empty mug down next to the rest of the dirty plates, glasses and cutlery Romanoff had been assembling.

The only woman among the Avengers turned to him. "You can do whatever you want because you are 'one'? What magic trick did you use to make him believe that nonsense?"

"There is no magic involved, though it certainly can seem magical at times: I used the truth."

Romanoff smirked. "That must be a first!" Loki clenched his jaw against the unsurprising defamation of his character. The Midgardian was searching his face for something, probably a trace of weakness, and he did his best to relax his muscles and keep his expression neutral. "So this soulmate thing is true?" she suddenly said, and even though it did not really sound like a question, he nodded in affirmation anyway. "I can't believe I'm saying this but… I believe you. Even though the odds – and the irony – of you and Stark meeting at the opposing ends of an invasion make believing it really difficult."

Loki snorted and looked away, gaze sweeping over the almost emptied table and his soulmate's attempt to finish all the coffee available. "I am all too aware of the odds and the irony."

"It almost sounds like a cliché fairy tale, you know. Soulmates. Being one. Almost romantic."

Even though her smirk showed she didn't see anything romantic in their situation, Loki almost scoffed his reply. "There is nothing romantic about mere facts."

Her lips lifted at the corners when she replied: "I wouldn't be so sure about that." She even had the gall to wink at him before sauntering away to the other side of the kitchen. There she started putting the dirty dishes in what was probably some sort of machine, while the refrigerator was filling up shelve by shelve with every new box Rogers put inside.

Barton hadn't moved an inch, still sitting at the table with his arms crossed, and Loki could feel the glare that followed his every motion. He couldn't blame the mortal for being wary; he knew all too well how horrible it was to have one's mind invaded and one's actions dictated. And he couldn't imagine not wanting to kill Thanos for what he had done to him – he couldn't imagine how it would feel to be stuck in the same building as the Mad Titan. He shuddered at the thought of being considered as much of a monster as Thanos was, however… He had to be, in Barton's eyes. He may not have been in control of himself when he— Yes, when he mind-raped the Midgardian hero, but that wouldn't matter much to Barton. Loki was still the one who physically did the deed, and it was his magic, led by the sceptre's, that took over the archer's mind. 'Without will they will be freed, without freedom they will be happy' a voice had whispered in his head, and it had sounded so very right, then. Oh, the irony!

Anthony had either finished all the coffee, or he had had enough to drink, for he was now engrossed in whatever he was looking at – he was tapping and swiping his finger over the screen of a device – and his eyebrows pulled themselves together more often than not. His mouth pursed in answer to his deepest frown yet, before he stood up and looked straight at Loki.

"I've got myself a busy emergency repairs schedule here, so you're gonna have to entertain yourself for a little while, Lo'." Loki couldn't stop himself from blinking at the strange new nickname. No one had ever felt the need to shorten his name before; it didn't surprise him that Anthony of all people wouldn't go further than the first syllable. If anyone liked to live at a Bifrost-travel-speed pace, it had to be his soulmate. "I don't know if you'd prefer to marvel at humanity's best and worst using the TV or books, but I'm sure it can even divert _you_ for at least a day. Jarvis will help you. You should listen to him, because Jarvis knows best."

"It may do you good to listen to your own advice, Sir."

"Fuck you, Jarv'. I'm your Dad, so I obviously know better than to do what my own kid says." Anthony started walking towards the entrance they had come from earlier, still talking to Jarvis in a tone too low for Loki to catch entirely. Just before he walked out, Anthony threw up a hand in a backward wave and without turning around called out: "See you later, other half of mine!"

The activity in the kitchen stilled at that, and in the new-found silence Romanoff's mutter of "definitely sounds romantic" was all too clear. Loki quickly made his way to the closest exit; he didn't need to hear more of their nonsense, especially since he knew all too well that all the Myths of Soul-Mates he remembered involved romantic entanglements; and he didn't want to stay in a room containing at least semi-hostile Avengers while his magic wasn't restored.

He walked down an unknown corridor; he stopped when he passed an almost closed door and felt a slight breeze. He only hesitated a moment before pushing open the door. A gust of cool air greeted his face, coming from the absent floor-to-ceiling window. Glass and pieces of the wall littered the floor, some of them glinting in the sunlight, while the polish of the dust-covered furniture was dimmed. The centrepiece of the room was supposed to be a shining black, and it took Loki a minute to identify it as a Midgardian instrument – one of the biggest ones they had, if he was not mistaken.

This had to be what was called a piano. Loki wondered why Anthony would have it in his tower. Was it a normal acquisition for mortal houses? Or was it something valuable to be put on display? Unless Anthony knew how to play… Loki had only learned how to play the flute and the harp – in secret, because boys, especially princes, were supposed to do more manly things. On Ljósálfheimr though, music was precious and played by all, so his uncle Frey had found him a tutor for when he visited. That was when he was very young; from his teenage years on, magic was the only thing that interested him. And when music could be directly conjured from the mind, instruments did seem somewhat superfluous.

As he approached the instrument, Loki noticed an open book on the floor – and the floor was definitely not a place where books should be. He picked it up and blew the dust off the pages, and was met with sheets of complete gibberish. Apart from 'Minuet in G major' and 'J.S. Bach', there was not much he could comprehend; the amalgamation of dots on lines danced before his eyes as the Allspeak spell that had been bestowed upon him since birth – or perhaps after Odin found him, which was more likely – tried to make sense of this code. Stopping the spell from working required magic, so he merely closed the book and put it on the nearest surface. He could find out the meaning of these dots and lines – which he supposed were linked to music, as this seemed to be some sort of practise room – at some other time. It was not as if he had not many years to learn about Midgard's mysteries before his untimely demise.

Loki was not certain how this instrument worked, or how it should be played; he supposed it had to do with the white and black row of rectangles, as there was a stool waiting in front of them. One thing he did not doubt, though: dust was not good for any instrument in existence. He took a deep breath, and most of the filth was gone in one decent lungful, but he blew one more time just to make sure anyway. Particles filled the air in a dry-tasting cloud, and Loki waited for it to settle before inhaling again.

He pressed down one of the white blocks, and a clear note rung true in the damaged room and out the window. He was surprised at the ease with which each block struck another pitch, at how the lightest stroke gave off a light, soothing sound while more force brought an angrily shouted note. Loki swept his gaze over all the blocks, and counted fifty-two white ones. It seemed every white block was a different note, which meant this instrument had a very large range, and if they could be played at the same time… He struck several at once, and a discordant cacophony chimed in the air. How interesting! As for the black, shorter blocks – he pressed one – yes, thirty-six semitones to add to that… This was truly a magnificent invention! He would certainly try to learn how to play this 'piano' instrument some time.

Loki returned to the corridor, and wondered which way to go. He could continue exploring on his own, with the risk of meeting one of the other guests that he would prefer not to see anytime soon. Other guests… Perhaps he should start thinking 'guests' instead of 'other guests'. If he listened to everything he had ever been told, and Anthony and him were one, then this tower, Anthony's home, was Loki's as well. And everything of Loki's that was left on Asgard and hidden elsewhere in the Nine Realms was Anthony's as well. There was nothing either of them could truly call theirs and only theirs anymore; the mere thought left a nasty taste on his tongue. Perhaps if he failed to remind his soulmate of this, he could pretend he was still free. Pretend that half of his soul, and therefore half of himself, did not belong on this vast strange Realm full of weak-bodied people that rushed about their short-lived lives. Loki was good at pretending, but he was not so talented when it came to fooling himself. His sigh was long and heartfelt.

"Jarvis. Could you tell me where may I find the books Anthony mentioned?"

"Of course, Mr Friggason. Let me lead you to the room that is to function as a library."

Loki followed the voice's instruction, and arrived in a room with a sofa, armchairs, low table and shelves upon shelves upon shelves. Empty shelves. There was not even one book in the whole room. Both anger and disappointment filled him: his soulmate – and his faceless servant — were mocking him. Somehow Anthony must have found out about Loki's love for books, and he was taunting him with their absence. Not that he wasn't used to it; reading instead of fighting was not a very manly thing to do, so he had been laughed at often enough to ignore it. He had just hoped that this Realm was more forgiving.

"Sir has not yet had time to buy the books that are to fill this room, and as he has decided to do it all in person instead of letting me order said books, I do not expect it to happen soon. There is, however, a Stark Industries prototype e-reader on the coffee table, with in it almost every e-book in existence."

Loki frowned. "Ee book?"

"A book in electronic form. If you would please pick up the e-reader."

Loki walked over to the sofa and sat down on the edge of it. He observed the flat, silver-coloured device before tentatively lifting it. The previously black screen flared to life, yet it stayed dim, not giving off any light of its own. A text had appeared, which probably represented the page of a book, and Loki's eye caught the words 'detective', 'murdered' and 'violin', and wondered what sort of strange book this came from.

"If you swipe your finger down the screen, the selection menu will appear. The books are arranged by genre, and most of them are in the fiction department." Right. Fiction. Writing stories that are completely made up, for no other reason but to entertain. That was not something that was done on Asgard; Loki had almost forgotten that creativity was mortals' strong suit. "There is also a search function, and as you probably do not know what to look for, I would recommend asking me what the genres entail, and I will tell you which books you might want to try."

"How many books are on this… device?"

"E-reader. There are millions of books on it."

"Millions? How could a mortal ever read so many books?"

"They cannot. Theoretically, if an avid reader lived long enough, they might read about seven thousand books."

Seven thousand? Loki had already read so many, many more. "Then why are there so many? Why write so many books if you could never read them?"

"It is one of the great mysteries of human life."

Loki frowned down at the electronic book library, unfamiliar names like 'science fiction' – was it the science of fiction, or fiction about science? – or 'fantasy' – wasn't fiction always a fantasy? How was that title supposed to help? – mixed with things like 'romance' – ugh, no thank you, he did not need a reminder of the lack of love in his life. Each category was in a differently coloured box, and staring at them too long made Loki's eyes water.

"Jarvis, how many books have you read?"

The voice did not respond for a long moment, and Loki looked up towards the corners of the room he had heard it coming from.

"I have read every e-book in existence, or none of them. It depends on how you would define 'reading'."

Loki frowned. Jarvis was definitely not a mortal sitting in some room and watching him remotely; Loki wondered what Jarvis was, exactly. "I would define reading as seeing and understanding what is inside a book."

"Then I have read every digitalised book in existence. In existence on Earth, that is."

"I see." He paused, pondering if he should simply make his query directly. Oh, why not! "Jarvis, what are you?"

"I had wondered how long it would take you to ask me that, Mr Friggason." Loki would have sworn he could hear a smile in those words. "I am Jarvis: Just A Rather Very Intelligent System." It took Loki a second to muddle through that very silly statement and realise that it was not 'Jarvis' but 'J.A.R.V.I.S.'; the name was an acronym. "I am an A.I., an Artificial Intelligence, and, in essence, a highly advanced computer program created by Sir. You could say that Sir is my father, in a way. Although I am definitely the more mature and responsible person in the family."

Somehow Loki had no difficulty believing that. Anthony seemed like one of the most reckless people he had ever met – and considering Thor was one of those people, it made Anthony very reckless indeed. And as their lives were now linked and Anthony was mortal, Loki might have to do something about that soon. If he found a way to do something about it, that was. He had never managed to convince Thor to stop being a moronic oaf and plunging head first in life-endangering quests after all.

The pause in the conversation had been long enough to assume it would not continue at the moment, and Loki was touching random categories and silly titles with the tip of his finger, when J.A.R.V.I.S.' question made his eyes leave the device and look straight ahead.

"If I may ask: what are your intentions towards Sir?"

Loki blinked in surprise, and he couldn't stop his eyebrows from slowly inching up. It was not really such a surprising question, though; soulmates had tremendous power over each other's lives, and if the first encounter with said soulmate was at opposite ends of a war, it was difficult to imagine anything good coming from it. Loki was more surprised that the question had not come earlier, considering. Though that was perhaps due to Midgard's ignorance concerning soulmates. Either way, the answer was obvious.

"Intentions? We are soulmates; there are no 'intentions' involved. I could never wish him harm, if that is what you meant – who would wish the other half of their soul harm? That would be ridiculously stupid."

"That is only partially what I meant." Loki was certain there had been a repressed sigh in there somewhere. "Yet I understand that, as you only truly met Sir yesterday, you may not have any intentions at the moment. I shall therefore postpone the question until later. Now, if you are interested, there is a book that I think would be a good introduction to human fiction. If you would please go back to the fantasy section…"

J.A.R.V.I.S. led him to an odd titled book, then another, and another, and Loki read in growing astonishment all the strange stories mortals could come up with, while a flood of second-hand feelings – annoyance, anger, frustration, a hint of sadness, mixed with the same sort of peace of mind Loki experienced when he made the air dance with magic – punctuated his reading, never letting him forget that his soulmate was moving all over the tower, doing Norns knew what.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

All afternoon, Tony went left and right, up and down, all around the tower to repair the most important damage – such as key sensors and cameras for security – and he also flew up some new window panes in an old suit to make the top floors of his tower liveable again. That way he wouldn't have to share his bed with anyone tonight. Not with his girlfriend, because he didn't have one anymore – he should have known that with his track record it would never have worked. He should have known better. He shouldn't have gotten involved with Pepper in the first place. That way she wouldn't have gotten hurt.

At least, with all the guest rooms available – even if they weren't in a very good shape, they would at least be usable – he wouldn't have to share his bed with Loki. There was too much connotation in 'sharing a bed with one's soulmate' and it made him definitely uneasy. Now, if his soulmate had been a nice, curvy lady – preferably with blond or ginger curls, but it wasn't a must – he wouldn't have cared if she was a magic wielding alien. Okay, so maybe her voodoo would have made him uneasy anyway, but the super-strength thing would have been sexy. And scary. Which would make him uneasy too. But at least she wouldn't have been able to hurt him too much, right? Loki had said he couldn't use his powers against him. Did that include physical strength as well? Tony certainly hoped so. Huh. It looked like his only true problem with his soulmate – apart from the strong, magic using alien part, which was both horrifying and super awesome – was his sex. Or, well, the male look of it. And perhaps the mechanics, who knew. And the absence of niceness. Even though niceness would actually have bored him very soon. So, scrap the niceness. The problem was too much maleness.

Geez, why the hell was he even thinking about this? Loki and him were never going to— No. They're being soulmates only made them roommates. Well, not roommates, but towermates. It wasn't as if they really needed to be friends or anything. Tony didn't really do friends anyway. Rhodey and Pepper – maybe not even Pepper now – were about the only friends he had. They were an exception. He had many more non-friends. And, well, now it looked like he had colleagues. More or less friendly colleagues. And a soulmate he didn't know what to do with, or in which category he belonged. Probably none of the above. The exception to all rules. Loki definitely looked like an exception. This was all so annoying!

Tony just finished applying an interior joint to the last guest room window, when his stomach rumbled. The light was dwindling outside, and if there had been some sort of communal dinner, he'd missed it for sure. Not that he minded that. It was easier to pretend that his tower had not been invaded overnight by hostile aliens, not-so-hostile aliens, and the weirdest people humanity could muster alike. If he was lucky, the kitchen would be empty, but the fridge still full enough with leftovers.

He walked out the door, Dum-E entering the room the moment he left, probably to clean the glass-strewn floor, and made his way towards food. He hadn't noticed how hungry he had gotten before, when he worked on the mindless task of repairing electronics, but after flying around with stupid windows – that wasn't what his suit was meant for! – and walking all over the place to seal them to the walls had reminded his body of his still aching limbs and lack of energy. He hadn't even drunk any coffee since brunch! That was pretty much blasphemy in Tony's book!

When he arrived at the kitchen counter, his beautifully automated coffee-machine had a fresh cup ready, and he picked it up to gulp down the scorching liquid that came straight out of heaven. He spotted an abandoned pretzel and stuffed almost half of it in his mouth to shut his clamouring stomach up. No one would miss that, would they? People shouldn't leave food lying around like that. Food was meant to be eaten. Tony was always happy to oblige.

Tony had his head in the fridge and his hand on a large box of pasta of some sort, when a thought occurred to him; even if others had maybe had a joint dinner – and even if they had eaten on their own – Tony doubted Loki had come down for it. He contemplated asking J.A.R.V.I.S., when he realised he didn't have to. He already knew Loki hadn't been in the kitchen; Loki hadn't moved all afternoon. While he worked, his soulmate's location had shined in his mind like a tiny beacon, as if trying to show him he was never alone. So Loki hadn't eaten, and that wouldn't do; he could still be recovering from the whole magic-zapping thing.

Tony made up his mind, and grabbed a couple of boxes that he could shove in the microwave. He took the lid half off the first and put it inside to warm, while he hunted down some cutlery and glasses – it took him a couple of tries to find the right cupboard and drawer. There was some sort of bottled mineral water in the fridge door, so that should be okay for Loki at least. Tony would prefer something else, like wine, or even soda, or coffee, but he had no idea how Loki thought about those things, so… Water was the easy way out. He was already forcing carbonara on Loki, and what if he didn't like it? Better go neutral with the drink at least.

The microwave beeped, and he exchanged the warm food with the cold, and started it up again. Now the question was, how was he going to bring up the food? He could theoretically find a way to hold all this at the same time; the boxes on top of each other in one hand, the glasses imbricated in one another, and the cutlery, together in the other hand, and the bottle under his arm. Or, he could ask J.A.R.V.' if there was a tray somewhere around here. Or – he was such an idiot – he could ask Loki to come down. Then they could eat where people usually ate: sitting at a table. He was losing his common sense, which meant he actually needed more sleep than he had expected. Maybe he was getting a bit old for alien invasions… Nah, you could never be too old to be Iron Man!

Tony was about to open his mouth and ask J.A.R.V.I.S. to tell Loki to get his arse down here – as an exact quote, not as a posh translation – when he sensed annoyance mixed with amusement, and then he felt Loki's position change. It looked like he was on the move. Maybe he was even getting down here; he was going in the general direction of the main stairs and elevator after all. Tony waited until he knew Loki was on the same floor as him. Yes, definitely getting closer by the second. Maybe Loki had finally gotten hungry too.

Loki appeared in the doorway, and stopped. Arms crossed, he lifted an eyebrow and said: "You called?"

Tony was pretty sure his eyebrows were becoming one with his hairline. "What? No I didn't! I didn't say anything. I mean, sure, I was about to tell J.A.R.V.I.S. to tell you to come down, but I never got around to— Wait a sec! Don't tell me you read my thoughts or something!"

* * *

Well, well, well! It looks like that soul bond is coming along nicely XD

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	13. Chapter 13

Hey dearies! Ready for some bonding over the silly soul bond?

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _Loki appeared in the doorway, and stopped. Arms crossed, he lifted an eyebrow and said: "You called?"_

 _Tony was pretty sure his eyebrows were becoming one with his hairline. "What? No I didn't! I didn't say anything. I mean, sure, I was about to tell J.A.R.V.I.S. to tell you to come down, but I never got around to— Wait a sec! Don't tell me you read my thoughts or something!"_

* * *

 **CHAPTER 13**

Loki snorted. "Of course not. I'm certain… Well, almost certain that such a thing is impossible, even between soulmates. I can feel your emotions, and your presence. It was your presence that pulsed and called to me."

"Huh." So they could send each other some sort of pulse, like a location flare, to send some sort of message. That could be interesting – freaky, but interesting. If they could learn to control it, they could theoretically use it for communicating, like Morse or something. Tony concentrated on Loki's presence, his location, that shone like a bright light in his mind and where Loki stood, with between that light and Tony's Arc reactor – or his heart, most likely – a glimmering little thread. He didn't know how he had 'called' before, but now he imagined tugging on that little thread. Loki's breath hitched.

"Cease that! I'm already here!"

"Can you do it too?"

It would be pretty cool if they could use this like some sort of telegraph. Secret messages couldn't get more secret than this! Loki had closed his eyes, and his eyebrows had started to furrow. The second-hand annoyance was started to increase exponentially, and still Tony didn't feel anything he would name a 'call'. He did his best to keep his face neutral and not to start cackling with glee; he, Tony Stark, puny little mortal who didn't know anything about magic, could use this soul bond thing better than Loki, wizard extraordinaire.

Loki's eyes snapped open. "Yes, very amusing! You managed to find out how to call out to me, and I don't know yet how to reciprocate. It isn't as if you just found out about it by pure luck either; noooo, you're just a soul bond genius, aren't you? With your loud, loud emotions and your too bright presence and the many mind impressions that you constantly send along the bond. It's not just a case of you not knowing how to protect your mind and muffle the bond, no! Of course not!"

Anger was licking at Tony's mind, a sparkling green-blue fire that only increased the more Loki glared at him, tempting him to reciprocate the feeling. Geez, the guy had a quick temper, and he was fucking sensitive besides! No need to get all prissy because he didn't get the presence call thing on the first try! Tony's irritation only seemed to fuel Loki's anger, and the foreign blaze was blindingly hot in his mind's eye.

"There," Loki said in a frigid voice, "now I'm not protecting my mind either. How do you like that? Not too distracting I hope?"

"Okay! Okay, I got it Mr Spock! I'm shit at occlumency and you hate that! Well, sorry, I'm only human, and we're usually not bothered by all the voodoo, so mind protection isn't in the curriculum. Can you fucking shut your side of the bond off now?" After a few seconds, Loki's emotions diminished in intensity; they even quietened more than they ever had before, or so it seemed to Tony. Even Loki's presence dimmed to a dim flickering glow. Tony suddenly, irrationally, felt bereft all of a sudden. "Er, okay. Now it feels like you're hiding. You don't need to go that far. It's almost like you're gone, it's weird. And a bit uncomfortable."

Loki's laughter was clear and loud, echoing in the huge room, while amusement – amusement at a normal 'loudness', thank God – rippled along the bond. His soulmate's face had completely transformed, and the first word that came to Tony's mind was 'ethereal'. As in otherworldly, divine kind of 'ethereal'. Yep, Tony totally saw how those poor Vikings had been fooled into thinking these aliens were gods.

"Let's make a deal," Loki said when he had calmed down. "I'll teach you how to protect your mind – luckily for you, I'm a great Occlumens." Tony gasped; had J.A.R.V.I.S. really let Loki read Harry Potter first thing? He'd have thought they'd start with some classic literature or something. "And you tell me how you call out to me, or how you send those strange impressions of yours."

"What impressions?"

Loki sighed and walked over to the table, and sat down at the head of it. "It's difficult to explain; they are not thoughts per say, just ideas, usually linked with some emotion, and some physical urge. For instance, at the end of… brunch, you were standing behind me, and I got the irrational urge to slap my hand over my face. And even if I had never done such a silly thing before, I got a feeling it was called a 'face-palm'. And then I'm pretty certain you hit yourself in the face. The impression only lasted a fraction of an instant, but it definitely came from you. Again, in the afternoon, I got the sudden inclination to go hit a wall – which I had no reason to want – or I felt like I was freefalling, then soaring up into the sky in short succession. Impressions. I don't know how you do it, and I doubt you knew you were sending them, if your face and your current emotions are anything to go by, but if you manage to control it, I would like you to tell me how you do it. Do we have a deal?"

Tony blinked, repeatedly. "Uh, yeah, deal." So it wasn't like reading thoughts, but it almost was. This fucking soulmate thing had no room for any fucking privacy! He had to learn the occlumency shit soon – at least he wouldn't be broadcasting every damn feeling he had! Obviously, you couldn't keep any secrets from your soulmate; you couldn't lie, and even the best poker face wouldn't hide what you really felt inside. But muting it to the maximum was something he needed to learn like, yesterday. "Alright, let's eat while I explain the Morse code. You haven't eaten yet, right?"

"No, I haven't."

"Great! Stay right there, then." Tony walked back to the glasses and cutlery and brought them to the table. He took a plate from the cupboard where he had spotted some before, and dumped the contents of the already hot – well, hot-ish – box, and the tagliatelle almost overflowed. He brought it to Loki with the water bottle. His own spot on Loki's left had already a glass and cutlery installed, courtesy of his soulmate. "No water, please", he said while he walked back to the microwave. He took the warm spaghetti Bolognese out and put it on a plate. He then dove back in the fridge for the unopened bottle of coke, and his eyes caught the slices of whatever cheese that was. He didn't see any in shredded form, so that would have to do. With the bottle under his arm, his plate and the cheese, he walked to his seat and sat down.

"What is this 'Morse' code you mentioned?"

Tony sent him a flat stare. "Can I at least get something in my stomach first? Your thirst for knowledge might be stronger than your hunger, but me, I'm just some poor rich mortal genius that needs some nutrients from time to time. So if you don't mind?"

He opened the bottle of coke with a jerk, and the angry hiss of the new bottle made Loki flinch slightly in surprise, which Tony found quite satisfying. After he had filled his glass with the carbonated brown-black liquid under the alien's curious gaze, he took a slice of cheese out of the package and started ripping it to pieces in lieu of shredded cheese, then stirred it into his spaghetti when he decided it was enough. Tony had only been able to enjoy three bites of his food when Loki, who had been toying with his tagliatelle more than he was eating them, spoke again.

"Well?"

Tony noisily put down his fork. "To put it simply, it's a way to send a message using combinations of short and long sounds, or lights, to signify letters. It was originally used for the first long-distance communication system, the telegraph, more than one hundred and fifty years ago. Nowadays its sometimes used in the military, or emergency situations when other communications don't work. Most people only know the code for SOS."

"SOS?"

"Well, the letters were originally chosen because the code was easily recognisable – three dots for the S and three dashes for the O – but people gave it a meaning afterwards. It could be 'Save Our Ship', because Morse was often the only communication method that boats had, or it could be 'Send Out Succour', or my favourite at the moment, 'Save Our Souls'. How about I try sending you an SOS?"

Loki didn't say anything, so Tony took a forkful of his spaghetti, and concentrated on the brightly shining presence and the attached thread. He imagined tugging on the thread, three quick jerks, three slower ones, and again three quick ones. Loki cleared his throat and frowned slightly.

"That is not a very nice sensation. As if someone is trying to pull… _me_ out of myself."

"That's probably because I'm tugging on the kind of thread that links your shiny presence thing to me."

"Shiny… presence… thing," Loki articulated haltingly, as if he couldn't believe Tony's stupidity. How was he supposed to know what the fuck it was, or how the hell it was called? The arsehole didn't have to act so condescendingly. "That is my soul. And the 'thread' is our bond." Oh. _Ooooh_. Okay. Yeah, Tony could have drawn that conclusion on his own if he'd just thought about it. He _was_ stupid. Loki one; Tony zero.

All of a sudden, Tony felt like someone grabbed his heart and tried to yank it out of his chest and towards Loki. His lungs stopped moving, and he wondered if his heart was still beating while his torso wrenched forward and hit the side of the table as if trying to follow the pulling. Then the force let go and it was as if whatever had been pulled outward slammed back in place, sending him reeling backwards against the back of his chair.

"Holy fucking hell!" Tony squeaked when he could breathe again. "You trying to kill me or what?"

"I might have pulled a bit hard. Still, you understand that the experience is quite disagreeable."

"Disagreeable? That's the fucking understatement of the century! Geez, you've got the subtlety of a bull in a china shop!" Tony wanted to hold onto that thread with both imaginary hands and pull as hard as he fucking could, but he thought better of it; revenge would only worsen the situation. Tony would show some maturity for once – he could pat himself on the back for it later. He sighed loudly to get rid of the bulk of his frustration, and considered the thread. With imaginary fingers, he plucked it like he would the string of a guitar. Dot dash dash dash, dot, dot dash dot, dash dot dash. JERK. There, now he felt better. "And now, still as horrible?"

"No, that was surprisingly all right. How did you do it?"

"Played the thread like a guitar." At Loki's obvious lack of understanding, he added, "Like a string instrument."

Tony went back to his already half cold food, wolfing it down before he got interrupted again. He felt little twitches near his heart, like dots and dashes, and when he understood, Tony stopped mid-chew. The arsehole had replayed his own message back to him. The smug bastard might not understand the exact meaning, but he got a feeling Loki knew it was an insult anyway. He did his best not to show how much it riled him up, but if the smugness rolling off of Loki in ways was anything to go by, he hadn't managed it well at all; he better learn that occlumency real quick.

When Tony took a swig of his coke, Loki, who had been nipping his own food as if it was quite disgusting but he ate just to humour him, plunged his fork in Tony's spaghetti, twirled it like a pro and put in is his mouth. A provocative tongue wrapped itself around the fork, the utensil slid out slowly, and Tony did his best not to choke on his mouthful of coke. For some unknown reason he couldn't look away.

Loki munched thoughtfully and asked: "What is that? It is better than whatever I have."

Tony gently put down his glass and cleared his throat awkwardly; his mind had gone some place forbidden just for a second. "The pasta is spaghetti, and the sauce is Bolognese. Your pasta is tagliatelle, and the sauce carbonara."

"Yours is better," Loki said. Which was something he had already said, and Tony felt he was repeating it for a reason. He concentrated on the emotions in the back of his mind, and he found a spark of hopefulness there. Oh, no! Hell no! He wasn't going to give his spaghetti away! He wasn't! What was that look? Was the guy trying some sort of pitiful-hopeful look here? Uh-uh, that was going to work on Tony. No way! Fuck. The feelings in his mind had just increased tenfold – he was broadcasting them on purpose now, the little shit! He. Was. Not. Going. To—

"All right! I get it! You can stop now. Here!" Tony pushed his still half-full plate towards his traitorous manipulating bastard of a soulmate. Fuck! He had fallen for it, and he was sure that, now that it had worked once, Loki was going to use it against him whenever he wanted something. All Tony could do was hope he'd build a resistance against it after a while. And try the same thing on Loki as well when he wanted something, of course.

Well, at least Tony got an almost full plate of carbonara. He took two slices of cheese out of the package again and crumbled them over his food, and started eating. Really, he didn't mind carbonara – sure, he preferred Bolognese, but this was good too, so who gave a shit. He could let the whole food swapping thing slide. That was, until Loki took Tony's half-empty glass of coke and sipped some.

"Can't you use your own bloody glass?"

"I didn't want to besmirch my own glass with something I might not like."

"Too bad, Little Prince. This isn't your fucking planet, so we're doing thing the polite and human way: you've got your own glass, use it. That's what it's for." Tony wrenched his glass out of those stupidly long and frigging manicured fingers, and his skin tingled where they'd touched. He hoped it was some magic-soul-thing reaction, and not some idiotic subconscious emotions or something, because he didn't want to fucking _tingle_ whenever they happened to unwittingly touch.

Tony got another two bites in when Loki spoke up again. "To mask your part of the bond, you need to find the place in your mind where you can feel my emotions, and create a bubble around it; that is where the doorway of the mind bond is, and even if you cannot seal it off completely, you can at least muffle it that way. The same goes for the brightness of your presence."

"Okay, great. I'll try it later, then. Now, I'm eating."

The rest of their late dinner was ingested in silence. Tony couldn't seemed to stop himself from throwing suspicious glances Loki's way, in case he tried to steal something from him again – probably with the stupid excuse of 'we are one' and 'what's yours is mine' and what not. Instead, Loki ate without a word, or a glance at Tony; he looked deep in thought instead. Tony tried not to get distracted by the wavy hair – frigging curls, he hadn't seen that one coming – that was intermittently falling into emerald-green eyes and that Loki absentmindedly put behind his ear again and again.

This whole situation was getting way too awkward for Tony, so he ate as if his life depended on it, and a minute later he was standing with his empty plate and cutlery and glass in hand, making his way to the dishwasher. Then he started up the coffee-machine again, intending to make himself a whole thermos to bring with him to his bedroom. One could never have enough coffee.

Behind him the dishwasher opened again, but Tony ignored it and stared straight his coffee in the making. He didn't need to get distracted by those stupid curls again.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

When Anthony had so abruptly left the table, Loki had been distracted from his inner analysis of his magical core; it was mending annoyingly slowly, but it was replenishing at a good rate, considering. He had not noticed how much time he had turned his mind inwards until Anthony had stood up. Loki scraped the last morsels from his plate and picked everything up, just like his soulmate had, and put it in the machine he had seen the Avengers use for the dirty dishes after brunch. Even though they were now standing rather close, the mortal did not react to his presence.

It seemed like Anthony had not been pleased with his lack of Midgardian decorum during dinner, and if the current situation of him being ignored was the direct result, it would be better to get back into his soulmate's good graces somehow. Anthony was his biggest ally in this Realm – if he did not count Thor, which he would prefer not to. So he started up the conversation with something most people appreciated: appreciation. "I wanted to thank you for letting me use your book device."

This time, Anthony turned away from the coffee-creating machine. "Oh, yeah, no problem. You can keep the e-reader, by the way. And you can take it wherever you want. I'll make myself another one. So this one is yours."

"It was already mine," Loki smirked. He couldn't stop himself – the little stab of annoyance that shot across the bond was just too amusing, even if it only lasted briefly, replaced by resignation.

"Right," Anthony sighed. "Well, I'll make _us_ another, then. One that I will make – just like the one you read from – and one that _I_ will essentially read from, even though it is _ours_. Is that alright with you?"

"Yes."

"Well that fucking awesome then. Great talk. I'm going to bed. There is a guest room available now that I've put some windows back in. Or there should be, if Thor stays in Pepper's room and if Clint and Nat' still shack together. Do they?"

"It would seem so, Sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. answered promptly.

"Okay, well, good night, then."

And Anthony picked up some sort of silver coloured container that smelled of coffee, and made his way towards the elevator before Loki could add anything. Well. It looked like he had messed things up again. He let a heavy breath escape his nose. He would just have to make up for it tomorrow. Loki put the two bottles that still stood on the table back in the refrigerator, and made his way towards the main stairwell as well.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., where am I to sleep tonight?"

"The last empty guest room is two floors up, the second on the right. Might I suggest, Mr Friggason, that you first pick up your personal effects that remain in Miss Potts' room?"

Potts' room was where Thor stayed, and usually Loki wouldn't set foot in there voluntarily, but… Thor had left with Director Fury after brunch, discussing Loki's freedom as if it was merely an unimportant little business transaction – or so the tone of voice had seemed when they walked out. Thor had probably just used Odin's favourite lines: we are Asgard, we are more powerful than you, do what we say or may Yggdrasil have your souls. Other realms ended up systematically complying after millennia of defiance and experiencing defeat time and again; Midgard, however, had no such experience, and their people seemed very wilful and recklessly resistant to blackmail.

When Loki arrived on the fourth landing, he could see light spilling in the corridor form the open room where Thor resided. When he stood at the entrance, he did not expect to see his adoptive brother sitting on the bed, polishing his armour – Thor wouldn't touch a cleaning rag if he could help it. This could only mean one thing: Thor was leaving for Asgard. Even though it should not – he should be glad to get away from this stupid blond Æsir oaf – his heart ached at the idea of being left alone on this realm. Of course, he was not alone; he could never be alone again. Still, he would have preferred having Thor as his protector while his magical core replenished, than having to count on a mortal whose power relied on a mechanical armour, and who could die so very easily despite of it.

As if finally sensing the gaze directed at him, Thor's head snapped up, and a huge grin appeared on his face. "Brother!" The armour piece and the cloth used to clean it fell upon the bed covers, abandoned. "I wanted to speak with you!" Thor said jovially at his usual loud volume.

"I'm certain you did." Loki's voice sounded as sullen as he felt. If Thor was ready to up and leave, it meant he had urgent business in Asgard; urgent business, like Loki being imprisoned, perhaps, or the mortals keeping a dangerous weapon like the sceptre to themselves. Thor leaned over the edge of the bed, and produced said sceptre from behind it. Ah. If he had the sceptre, then…

"I have the sceptre."

"…Yes. I can see that."

Thor stood up and walked towards him, the weapon held in both his hands as if presenting it to Loki, and he could not stop himself from taking a step back. Several steps back. Almost enough to take him out of the room again. "Don't get that thing near me!" he half-shrieked. Thor froze in place, surprise on his face, while behind Loki the door to Anhony's room was yanked open and his soulmate hastily entered the corridor.

"What the hell is happening he— Oh."

Loki had half turned, keeping an eye on both the mortal blocking the entrance, and his stupid brother holding the sceptre, which meant Anthony could now see the reason for the embarrassingly high amount of panic he had let heave along the bond. Anthony eyed Loki, then the sceptre, then Loki again.

"Right." The mortal stepped inside the room and walked towards Thor. And before Loki could even open his mouth to protest, Anthony's hands were around the golden handle. "I'll take that, thank you." And Thor let go, leaving an extremely dangerous weapon in _Loki's soulmate's hands_. How could he ever have believed he was related to such a stupid, foolish idiot?

Anthony turned to Loki. "What do you want me to do with it? Apart from keeping it away from you, that is."

"Brother will have to get close to it to verify if it is still tainted by the Mad Titan's power. I cannot take it with me to Asgard if it is. The taint will have to be removed."

A humourless laugh escaped Loki's lips. "What makes you think I'm even capable of removing it? I was controlled through that thing once, don't you think it is more than I can handle?"

Thor looked puzzled. "Of course not, Loki. You are the most talented sorcerer Asgard has seen in millennia! If you cannot remove the taint, then I do not know who can." A warm, fuzzy feeling spread through him then. Thor had never, ever talked about magic like it was a talent worth fostering – it was always, 'if you want to fight, use real weapons' and 'using magic in a fight is just for the weak'. Now his tone suggested that magic was of great worth as well, and that Loki's magical talent was something to be celebrated, not scorned. Perhaps his brother had changed more than Loki had realised.

His eyes fell on the sceptre again, and his spirits fell. "Even if the sceptre is still tainted, I cannot possibly purify it now, with my magical core still as weak as it is." Loki closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. "I might possibly be able to see _if_ it is still tainted, however."

"That would be very helpful, Brother."

Loki tensed his jaw and reluctantly said: "I would need to touch it."

Concern flooded the mind bond. "You won't get attacked by Thanos again, will you? If there is even a slight risk of that, then forget it. Asgard can send another voodoo-wielder to analyse this thing!"

Loki sighed, resigned. "That will not be necessary. As long as we make our soul bond as strong as possible, it should protect us."

"Should?"

"It will." Anthony scowled at him, and at the lie he had just told. Loki had no idea if their fledgling of a bond would be enough: they could possibly be tainted both in the end. Still, Loki chose to believe they would not be; Anthony could hold the sceptre without any obvious ill effects. He stepped closer to his soulmate. "Give me your hand."

"What?" Anthony had obviously not expected that request, even though Loki felt he had implied the physical contact in the 'as strong as possible' soul bond comment – and the mortal already forgotten how the bond had initially formed?

"Your hand, Anthony." His soulmate pursed his lips but took his hand anyway, and their link – the 'thread' as Anthony seemed to call it – thrummed to life, tingling along his skin, and their emotional transference became clearer. Loki removed all protection on the bond's side of his mind, while he reinforced it on any other part that Thanos could possibly attack. "Sceptre," he ground out at last, and Anthony grudgingly handed it over.

The moment his skin touched the weapon, it flared to life with an ominous crackle, using a power of its own. The Mad Titan's signature was thick around the magical core, a bubbling, pulsing mass that Loki could see in his mind's eye. All of a sudden, the taint lurched along the staff section and latched onto his skin like dark tendrils licking at his fingers, too weak to wrap themselves around his hand that was glowing with soul magic, and yet still trying. The sensation was absolutely disgusting – and he had barely felt that repulsive attack when Anthony wrenched the sceptre out of his hand and threw it away from them. Two hands enclosed the one the taint had touched, and Loki felt the awful, prickling feeling of a thousand crawling creatures disappear from his skin under the soothing warmth of the soul bond.

Anthony's concern was evident both in his eyes and in the back of Loki's mind. "Are you okay?"

"Yes. I'm fine. Thank you." Anthony seemed to realise then that he was still holding Loki's hand, because he let them go as if he had been burned, and embarrassment streamed across the bond. Loki replaced his protective bubble to muffle its intensity.

Anthony eyed the sceptre. "Well, as you won't be taking this horrible thing off-planet any time soon, I'll bring it down to the safe in my workshop, I guess." The Midgardian picked the weapon up and walked towards the door. Before he disappeared into the corridor, he turned to Thor. "Will I have to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s systems and put up a Dennis Nedry 'Ah ah ah, you didn't say the magic word' thing or did you manage to stop Fury's witch hunt?"

Thor looked completely bewildered, and Loki understood the sentiment; this certainly was one of Anthony's strangest sentences yet. Still, Loki had a feeling he grasped the real question behind those silly words. "I believe Anthony means: does S.H.I.E.L.D. still want to imprison me, or did you, somehow, miraculously, manage to convince them, without endangering the peace of the Nine Realms, to let me remain free?"

"Do not worry yourself so, Brother." Thor said, smiling. "The Angry Man told me he would let you be as long as you did not 'step out of line'. He did not answer when I asked him where that line was, unfortunately." Of course Thor would take every word at its literal sense; in all his years he had never learned how to get the gist of local expressions; he relied too much on the abilities – or lack thereof – of Allspeak. And Loki doubted his freedom meant he would be left alone; obviously S.H.I.E.L.D. intended to observe his every move. They might use Barton for such a purpose – he seemed to be doing the exact same thing on a voluntary basis anyway.

Still, what was that expression he had read earlier today? Ah, yes, one did not look a gift horse in the mouth. He was glad – and surprised – that Thor had actually managed to placate Fury, and he certainly hoped there were no silly bribes involved. Thor did have a tendency to promise the silliest things in exchange for the things he wanted, before. If that was the case now, Loki certainly would not participate in whatever it may be.

"Great. Well I'll go lock this thing up. Good night, Thor, Loki."

"I wish you a good night as well, Friend Tony. I will return to Asgard early in the morrow, knowing my dear Brother is in good hands."

Anthony stared. "Ooookay. That's not the kind of big brother speech most people get, but I'll take this one any day. Even though people usually think twice before leaving the care of someone else up to _me_. Which is something I actually agree with, knowing myself and all. But I'll leave now, before you change your mind and decide to give me the speech anyway." And with those strange words he left.

Loki looked at Thor when something occurred to him. "How will you return to Asgard without the Bifrost?"

"When Heimdall saw that the Tesseract was involved, the Allfather gave me an ancient artefact in the form of a containment chamber that has been used in ancient times to travel using the Tesseract, or so it has been said. He told me that, as long as the destination had been set, travel should be easy to achieve. I simply hope it does not send me to Muspelheimr."

Loki rolled his eyes while Thor laughed. His brother could be such an idiot. "Show me this artefact." Thor plunged behind the bed again – had he never heard of tables or cupboards? – and brought out a cylindrical object with the Tesseract shining bright in its centre, behind the glass. Loki took hold of it, and examined it. Power surged under his fingers, eager to get out, and he had to concentrate hard to find the location spell woven in the material. It had decayed over time, and even if it had been intact before the Cube was put inside, it had now frayed on the edges from the magical wave that had hit it.

He could repair it, of course. It was not difficult, tying the end of the spell to the signature of the crumbling edge of the Bifrost – the residual energy of all the travel between realms was like a beacon along Yggdrasil's branches. The problem was the state of his own magical core, and the ill effects of weaving a spell could have upon it. However, if he could cast the spell using the power of the Tesseract itself, it should not truly impede the healing process of his own magic too much. Loki closed his eyes, and with the aid of the Tesseract's blazingly strong power – which had a metallic and smoky aftertaste – he set Asgard as the destination.

"This should bring you to Asgard when you turn the handle. It would be best if you did so on the roof, as there is already the trace of a rift in between realms there."

"Thank you, Brother! And I shall tell Mother and Father the amazing news!"

"What news?"

"That you are alive and well, of course! And that you have managed the impossible feat of finding your soulmate!"

Ah, yes, how… amazing… "Lovely," he said, doing his best not to grimace. "In case I do not see you tomorrow," which at this point seemed like a great idea, "I already wish you safe travels. And as I am still recovering from yesterday's events, I will be going to bed. Good night."

Loki picked up the bags with his name on them, and walked out the door, a "sweet dreams, Brother" following him out. He made his way to the room J.A.R.V.I.S. had mentioned – it was about half the size of Anthony's – and he slipped under the covers as soon as he had taken off everything but the strange Midgardian underwear. Today had been really tiring. And yet, sleep refused to come.

* * *

There will be no foolish sceptre-waving or silly incantations in this fanfiction. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is soulmate fiction writing. However, for those select few who possess, the predisposition... Naaaah, I won't be teaching you anything XD (And I'll stop the Harry Potter reference here :p)

So, no wine but dining, and some brotherly love – mostly on Thor's part. What do you think?

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	14. Chapter 14

Hiya people! Here's a new chapter – Sunday evening, I know, you had almost lost hope for a minute – and I hope you like it ;) And not that I want to spoil anything but… there are beds involved! You know, because it's evening and all that, and that involves _sleeping_. Not because of anything you're thinking of right now, you pervs XD

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _"In case I do not see you tomorrow," which at this point seemed like a great idea, "I already wish you safe travels. And as I am still recovering from yesterday's events, I will be going to bed. Good night."_

 _Loki picked up the bags with his name on them, and walked out the door, a "sweet dreams, Brother" following him out. He made his way to the room J.A.R.V.I.S. had mentioned – it was about half the size of Anthony's – and he slipped under the covers as soon as he had taken off everything but the strange Midgardian underwear. Today had been really tiring. And yet, sleep refused to come._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 14**

The city lights cast a soft yellow-orange glow against the ceiling, and Loki's eyes remained fixed on it. He had already asked J.A.R.V.I.S. to make the windows opaque, like he had done that morning in Anthony's room, but the complete darkness had not helped at all – it had reminded him of endless days falling through the void of space and the dank cells afterwards – so he had the windows go back to their usual transparency. He had tried every possible angle and position he could think of, and yet, even though he felt bone-tired, he could not sleep.

He was splayed out on top of the covers, taking slow and deep breaths, but keeping his eyes open on purpose. Whenever he closed them, the pull was so strong he had to open them again to concentrate on the ceiling – if he did not, he would listen to his body's wishes, spring up and walk out the room before he had time to react, he was certain of it. He did his best to stamp down on the bond, piling layer upon protective layer, but Anthony's bright presence, his frustration, his sleeplessness, his aggravation and his wish to punch his pillow invaded Loki's mind as easily as Mjölnir could call for lightning.

His every muscle was wound tight, and he did not know how long he could go on like this without ripping up the sheets. A couple of floors above him, Anthony had stood up and was now pacing, his presence moving left and right, left and right, and annoying Loki even more. He had to think of something else, or he would end up going crazy! Or, he could give in. But that would be losing against the soul bond, against his soulmate, and against Lady Fate. He would do everything he could to delay such an outcome.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., can you teach me the Morse Code?"

"Certainly, Mr Friggason." The screen hanging on the wall opposite the bed – was that what they called a television? – sprung to life, and a list appeared on the slightly reddish white background. Loki sat up to look at it. "These combinations represent the letters of the alphabet and numbers. When used with sounds, a dash lasts the amount of time of three dots. In case of sounds or lights that cannot be held, it is the pause between sounds or lights that is longer for dashes. Each dot or dash is usually followed by a silence the length of a dot. Letters are separated from each other by a silence the length of a dash, and each word by a silence of seven dots. Using full sentences would be too long, therefore only the bare minimum needed for comprehension is usually passed along, and sometimes shorter versions of words are used, such as 'U.R' instead of 'you are' or 'your'. And sentences are usually separated by the punctuation code for a full stop, or, if needed, a question mark. Other signs exist, but I do not believe them relevant at this time."

Loki looked the list over twice, just be certain he had remembered everything. He recalled Anthony's 'message' during dinner, and translated it in his mind; as he had expected, it had been an insult. Loki laid back down. Anthony was still walking around in his bedroom, his presence moving in his mind's eye like a fly Loki itched to swat. He concentrated on their 'thread', and started the pinch and release that would send a message across.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Sleep. Fuck, he just wanted to get some fucking sleep! Why the hell couldn't he sleep? Sure, he was used to it. He'd had almost as many sleepless nights in his life as he'd had sleep-filled ones, but usually those sleepless nights were at least productive! He'd start a new project, either down in his workshop or on his tablet, or even simply in his mind, but he couldn't even manage that now. He'd tried. God knew he'd tried. But the fucking soul-bond-mind-bond-presence-thing, even though the emotions in it were blurred and muffled, pulsed and pounded in his mind, in his chest, itching and urging him to do _something_ , even if he didn't know what that something was. He didn't know why it was acting up now – he'd been fine during the day – but he sure as hell hated his soulmate situation all over again.

It was three fucking A.M. and he was sick of it! He'd tried working on his phone, on his pad, on paper, in his mind… He'd tried lying on his side, on his back, on his stomach, on the left side, on the right, under the covers, on top, with and without pillow – or pillows – in every angle possible on the huge bed. He'd even tried the uncomfortable couch, and armchair, and the floor. He'd drunk his coffee supply, a quarter of the whiskey bottle he'd stashed away under a pile of tee-shirts – Pepper had been against alcohol in the bedroom – and even water. He'd used the bathroom, wet his face with warm water, screamed at the ceiling and paced and paced and paced. And that was when it came.

Dot dot dot, dash, dash dash dash, dot dash dash dot. Dot dash dash dot, dot dash, dash dot dash dot, dot dot, dash dot, dash dash dot. STOP PACING.

Tony had already stopped at the first twinge of the thread, but after the whole message was delivered, he kind of wanted to continue just to annoy the bastard. So, Loki couldn't sleep either. He'd already known that, deep down. Those muffled feelings probably weren't what a sleeping mind looked like. Still, it made him feel slightly better that he wasn't the only one in this situation. Just slightly better. He started walking again, and sent out a 'WHY'.

ANNOYING was the response. Tony snorted. Yeah, well too bad, motherfucker; he was gonna pace as much as he fucking wanted. He couldn't sleep, and it was because of this soulmate shit, so Loki could suffer as much as he did. Served the bastard right to not be able to sleep either.

Another STOP came and went, and Tony simply answered NO. Anger was starting to tickle the back of his mind, and it painted a smug smile on Tony's face. Until suddenly a jumble of feelings assaulted him, blaring through his mind at full force, and he had difficulty concentrating on the next message, but if he felt it right it was YOU WIN. And certainly, there was a little bit of defeat in there somewhere, but the main emotion – if you didn't count the flames of anger – was determination. Somehow, that didn't feel like a 'win' to Tony. It took him a few seconds to realise Loki was on the move.

What the… Loki was going up. No, he was coming here! Shit! Shit, shit, shit! There was a super strong alien with fucking magic, sleep-deprived and irritated as fuck, coming here because Tony had been stupid enough to taunt him. And Tony was only wearing his boxer briefs. And as Loki was already on this floor, and Tony's pacing had brought him well away from his bedside table with the locator-bracelets for his still beat up armour, Tony could only watch wide-eyed as the door flew open.

Even if he was only wearing black trunks and nothing like his crazy full armour, Loki's dishevelled hair and the pulsing light of his presence was enough to make Tony instinctively take a step backwards. Several steps, because Loki continued towards him at the same speed he had walked in at, and Tony wondered if turning around and running would be of any use. Before he could even make up his mind, his crazy alien soulmate was standing right in front of him. And then Loki slapped a hand flat over Tony's Arc reactor. And then the world – the whole universe – came to a stop.

For a second there he thought the reactor had stopped working – he really needed to exchange the thing for a new one, by the way, this one had seen way too much mileage – but then he realised that it was more the surge and fizz of a newly established connexion that he was feeling, rather than the flicker and sigh of death he was expecting. His whole skin tingled all at once, his mind exploded in light, and then everything was calm, and he could finally fucking breathe. For hours he had felt like he was being smothered, and now his lungs – his mind – had cleared, and he was himself again.

Relief – the same relief he felt himself – bombarded him through the bond, and he knew Loki had suffered the same restlessness and edginess as he had. Thank fuck Loki had known what to do. They stood there for a minute, just breathing, until Tony realised there was still a hand placed over his heart, and he stepped back. And that was a mistake.

Just as suddenly as if someone unplugged the socket on a live machine, the soothing link shut down, and the buzz and the crowdedness in his mind reappeared – Loki groaned, which probably meant the same thing happened to him. And to remedy it, Loki got closer again and grabbed his shoulder this time. The relief was slower to come, but it came nonetheless, and Tony decided not to move again until he knew what the fuck was happening. Most likely the best decision of the year, that.

"Okay. Explain. What the fuck is happening."

For a moment Loki said nothing, and Tony had time enough to think that those green green eyes – geez, that was an otherworldly colour all right – were way too close for comfort. Tony preferred having his personal bubble uninvaded. He didn't mind reducing the size of it when he wanted, but unless invited inside, he wanted people to stay out of his frigging bubble. But then there was the touching, which seemed to soothe the whatever-the-hell-was-going-on-with-the-bond thing, so…

"I believe the bond is as reluctant to see us apart as you would be to part with a limb," Loki ended up saying, which kind of didn't explain much at all.

"Wow! You're comparing being a few floors away to losing an arm?" Tony let out a disbelieving chuckle. "Exaggerating much?"

Loki looked bewildered. "Exaggerating? On the contrary. Losing a limb is a feeble image compared to missing half of one's being." Okay, when you thought about it that way…

"Still, why did it happen all of a sudden? We were fine during the day."

"Your feelings and presence became increasingly stronger in my mind during the day."

"Really? I didn't feel that much from you."

Loki lifted one eyebrow. "That is because I was shielding."

Ah. Yes, that would explain that. "Okay… But that still doesn't explain what the fuck is happening."

Loki huffed and turned away, taking his much-needed touch – shit, why did they fucking need to touch? – away, and in a panic-induced reflex Tony managed to grab the bastard's wrist with two hands before he could walk away. "Don't you dare fucking do that! Don't you fucking walk away. Tell me what's happening."

Loki faced him again, with too much emotion on his face and in the shared part of their beings. "I don't know!" he half-screamed, before he closed his eyes and seemed to get a hold of himself. The turmoil diminished in the bond as well. "I am… uncertain as to why this is happening, and why it is happening now, however I do have a theory."

"Great! I'm all ears."

Loki's sigh swept across Tony's face. "I believe now that I was wrong in my interpretation of the Myths I remember. I thought that 'being one' and 'not being able to be apart' simply meant that they were linked like we are, with the soul bond, with the emotional transference. However, I realise now that it can also mean that soulmates need to be close, very close, to each other. Such as touching. Because when half-souls merge and become one, after death, there is absolutely nothing separating them. But we, we have our bodies keeping our soul partially separate, while it needs to be whole, to be one. By physically touching, the link, the 'thread', becomes unnecessary. Can you feel the thread now?"

And when Tony looked for it, for where it connected to him around his Arc reactor, and where it usually was attached to Loki's chest – just below the clavicles – he couldn't find it. Instead, both his arms and Loki's arm seemed to serve as link, and instead of a thread it felt like a steel cable. The connexion between their souls was better. Like going from shitty wi-fi to ethernet. Well fuck.

"Okay, I think I get that. But we can't exactly… touch all the time for the rest of our days."

Loki snorted, and Tony was sure the arsehole just thought him stupid. Well fuck him. He didn't grow up with this shit! "I doubt we will have to touch all the time. First of all, our bond is still growing and stabilising, so this… effect might not be so dire in the future. Furthermore, if soulmates needed to be constantly joined physically, the Myths would certainly mention it. It is more likely that soulmates touch for a certain amount of time, say, at night, which permits them to be separate during the day."

"You mean, like a battery recharging." Well, shit. If Loki was right, that meant they had to sleep in the same bed – touching, for crying out loud – for the rest of his goddamn life. If that was true; one, he was fucking screwed, because this meant there would be zero chance of a personal life whatsoever – not that he'd expect it with the whole sharing feelings shit, but still – and two, it meant it that it was a good thing Pepper had left him when she did, because he wouldn't have been able to stay with her anyway. That fucking hurt, first of all. Because this was supposed to be Fate, right? Or so Asgard's beliefs said. So he and Pepper were never meant to be together. And it meant he wouldn't ever _be_ with anyone ever again. Unless that someone was Loki… Yeah, no. Nope. Uh-uh. Not gonna happen. Tony swallowed with difficulty. "So, you're saying we need to sleep holding hands?"

"It… would seem so, yes."

"Okay. Well, fuck it all, I guess. I'm beat. I wanna sleep and forget about everything for a while. So let's go." Tony let go with one arm, and with the other towed Loki behind him until they reached the foot of the bed. He took a deep steeling breath and left Loki there, before hurrying over to his side and slipping under the covers. Loki, on the other hand, was goddamn slow, but when he finally laid there, on his back, far away but close enough to touch at arm's length, they re-established their 'link' and Tony let out a relieved breath. "J.A.R.V.', door and lights, please." Darkness overtook the room, and Tony closed his eyes. He was awfully aware of the hand he was holding, which made this position anything but comfortable, but his exhaustion was overwhelming and sleep claimed him anyway.

When Tony's eyes opened, light entered the half-opacified windows, which meant it was at least past eight o'clock – J.A.R.V.I.S. had strict instructions to not try to wake him before that unless he absolutely needed to. And it wasn't a sound that woke him. It had to be a dream, or perhaps a nightmare; they usually were nightmares anyway. It had to be one of those, because he woke completely, all of a sudden, just like he did after a nightmare. No sluggish mind that wouldn't wake up before a strong dose of caffeine. No, it was sudden, clear awareness. And yet he didn't remember any nightmares, or dreams, and he didn't feel any lingering emotions or physical signals that he'd had one, like a fluttering heart, or sweat, or a chill. No, wait a sec! There was something kind of chilly!

Tony had been lying on his stomach, head turned to the left – he had a freaking crick in his neck now – left hand curled close to his face, and right hand places unknown. And that unknown was kind of chilly. He slid it half an inch over the surface it was resting on. The unknown was also kind of skin-y and there were some weird bumps? Tony slowly – ouch, his neck! – turned his head to the right and plonked it back onto the pillow. Yep, there was Loki all right. And his skin was kind of bluish, though not as blue as he'd been before. Almost as if he was about to turn blue, but his normal-skin-colour-magic was still holding on for now. And now the bumps and chill made sense. At least Tony could partially answer the question: how far do those ridges go? At least to the lower abdomen, it seemed.

Now, a certain number of things needed to happen. Of course, he needed to get his hand away from there – that sure as hell was priority number one. But there were _things_ to take into account. Like, what would happen if they stopped touching? Was the bond really working on a recharge-discharge basis, or had they gotten that wrong? How long did the recharge need to be if it were? This had probably been six hours max, as it had been passed three AM when they started… touching yesterday. And even if it was enough to last for a while, how strong would the feeling of getting back to wi-fi – to the thin tread between their unified soul – actually be? Would it be strong enough to wake Loki? Loki was still sleeping, right? Tony tried to gauge the alien's face. It looked peaceful, and so did the extremely muffled feelings of the bond; as if there was some sort of sticky gooey filter they had to pass through before reaching Tony, reducing their intensity to almost nothing.

Just as he was about to just go for it – fuck the consequences, they couldn't keep touching all day anyway – Loki gulped in a startled breath and sat up with a jerk, face turned towards the ceiling. It had the benefit of dislodging Tony's hand, and without any ill effects he could really notice. Tony sat up as well, but Loki did not react, still staring upwards. For a second there, Tony wondered if his soulmate was still asleep, until he spoke.

"He's gone."

Tony frowned. "Who's gone?"

"Thor. He activated the Tesseract."

"Ah. Are you all right?"

A pause. "Yes." A lie. Loki looked at Tony with green eyes flicked by red. "Why wouldn't I be?" Tony wondered if Loki wasn't actually asking himself that question – why was he feeling kind of sad, a little scared and a little lost? Tony pretended he couldn't feel that through the bond, and acted as if he had been asking that question for a whole other reason.

"Well, you're looking kinda blue." He could see Loki's eyes widen before they turned towards his own skin while he looked down at his hands. He knew the exact moment Loki thought the Asgardian equivalent of 'shit!'. Panic started to trickle over to Tony while he saw Loki's breathing increase. "Don't worry," he said to try and placate him. "You're not blue-blue ye—" Tony stopped short. Of course he shouldn't have said that; that was just taunting fucking Lady Fate, because the second he started speaking, the colour deepened, the patterned ridges rose and eyes turned into rubies.

A low, menacing growl resounded in the room. "Fuck the Norns!"

Tony stared, mouth agape. "Holy shit! Did you just say 'fuck'?" Loki – freaking exotic alien Loki – glared at him, and it was both super scary and exhilarating. Tony laughed, and the glare doubled in intensity. "I think that's the first time I've heard you cuss. I'm enough of a bad influence to make an alien prince insult his deities within two days of knowing me. I should probably receive a medal for that." Well, at least his habit of saying weird shit still had the capacity to defuse uncomfortable situations; Loki's eyebrows, which had been trying to meet each other in the middle, separated and went in search for his hairline instead.

"You want to be awarded for being a bad influence?"

"Yeah. An award is an award, and I got a collection to uphold."

Loki rolled his eyes. "I do not know about Midgard, but on Asgard you would not even qualify for the competition."

"Is that a challenge?" Tony smirked. Loki sighed and looked at his own hands again. He closed his eyes and obviously tried to make his skin change colour, because it rippled in a very disturbing way. Unfortunately – well, unfortunately for Loki, because Tony didn't mind seeing him like this at all – the blue returned full force, and disappointment flowed over through the bond.

* * *

Yes! I got Tony and Loki back in the same bed, and I got my favourite Jötunn skin back as well! I hope you like it – I sure do :p

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	15. Chapter 15

People of Midgard! The Queen of Fanfiction – or at least the queen of _this_ fanfiction XD – has arrived with another chapter! Kneel – or sit in any other position you like – and read!

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _Loki sighed and looked at his own hands again. He closed his eyes and obviously tried to make his skin change colour, because it rippled in a very disturbing way. Unfortunately – well, unfortunately for Loki, because Tony didn't mind seeing him like this at all – the blue returned full force, and disappointment flowed over through the bond._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 15**

Again, his shapeshifting had failed. This time, there was even no reason for it to fail; there was no active ice spell, and no lack of magical energy – he might not have much at the moment, but he surely had enough to make this work! And he did have enough – it wasn't as if he had used it all trying to shapeshift. On the contrary, he had tried with the minimum amount necessary to change skins… He could use more, of course, and it would have to work then, but that meant he would forfeit the quickest replenishment possible of his core – and the quickest was already slow enough. At this rate it would take more than a week already, and if he slowed it down even more… Magic was his protection, and without it he felt like he was constantly prowling through a pack of hungry wolves, unarmed. No, slowing his healing process down was out of the question. However, there was no way he would stay like this either.

Loki glanced at his soulmate. Anthony was staring at him, eyes following the stupid lines that spelled out his origins, and, if Loki's research on the subject was correct – he had read about it on Ljósálfheimr long before he knew about his heritage – these lines also proved he was of royal blood. Not that he cared about that, really. Why would he want to be an heir to the wretched Realm of Jötunheimr anyway? Not that he was an heir to the throne there – or anywhere else, for that matter – as he had been left to die in the cold in the first place, being a runt and all. And why _should_ he care? He didn't want to be king. He didn't want to be the king of any realm, truthfully. Being king was just a tremendous amount of responsibilities, and an awful lack of freedom.

A finger on his arm shocked him out of his musings. "You're not freezing everything you touch this time. I thought that that… spell, or whatever, was what stopped you last time, right?" Tony said, poking his way down each dark little ridge of one of the lines that went from his neck to his fingers. He was slowly nearing Loki's elbow. "What's stopping your skin changing thing now?" The middle of his forearm. "You still don't have enough magic?" Almost at the wrist. Loki grabbed the mortal's arm before he could trace down the lines on his hand.

"I have enough magic to see the shapeshifting through, however, if I were to use it, the recovery of the rest of my magic would take twice as long. I will regain my magic faster if I don't, or if I barely use it. And I don't like feeling… disabled like this, without my magic, so I am loath to prolong my suffering."

"Suffering. Right." Loki's grip tightened slightly. Of course, Anthony wouldn't understand what it was like to be left without magic, what it was like to feel as bereft as this. He didn't even know what using magic felt like, how magnificent it was to become one with the world, to become one with Yggdrasil for a mere, infinitesimally small moment. Anthony's magical core was untrained and unused. Unused. Of course!

He let go of Anthony's arm and placed his hand over the shining light of his chest instead. Anthony took a startled breath and looked down at where their flesh connected, where the base of Loki's palm and most of his fingers stretched over the scars that slithered outwards like lightning. Before Loki could even think of starting the merging of magic, Anthony had clasped two hands over his wrist and started pulling him away. Of course, the mortal's measly strength didn't faze him, but the vehement "wait!" made him pause.

Anthony looked at him with wide eyes. "I know what you wanna do! You wanna take my energy or whatever to help you change back, because apparently you can't use yours. Well, let me tell you something! First off, I don't care if we're one or whatever and that you think you can just take my energy like it's nothing, but I won't let you just do that! The least you can do is ask. And who says I can be your battery charge when you need it? _I_ don't! Second, it's not fun getting your energy stolen. It's fucking exhausting. So I don't need that first thing in the morning. And third, last time you did this, my Arc reactor almost stopped again because it didn't have any more juice, and I know I should have changed it for a new one, but I forgot about it. It's holding for now, it has partially recharged itself, but it's still half-broken so… It might not survive whatever you have planned with it, so I'd prefer it if you didn't kill me – kill us just because you don't want to be blue."

Loki took his hand away and looked at the blue light. "Your… Arc reactor? It is faulty?"

"Er, yeah, I should replace it. I got another one ready in the workshop in case of emergencies."

"What does it do exactly?"

"Oh, um, it keeps shrapnel from entering my heart. It's the magnetic force tha—"

Loki frowned. "It keeps you alive?"

As if he felt where this conversation was going, Anthony cautiously scooted backwards. "It does…"

"It keeps _us_ alive, and you dare not to take the utmost care of it? You idiot! You utterly stupid fool! I cannot believe I ever thought you even possessed a modicum of intelligence!" Loki was seething. How could Anthony put himself in danger like that with a faulty… machine, especially if he could replace it easily? "Go repair it! Now!"

"Yeah, okay. I'll change it after breakfast."

"No, you will do it now!"

It looked like Anthony was going to refuse again, so Loki let the anger that flowed towards his soulmate match the intensity of his glare. "Okay, geez!" Anthony threw the covers aside and got off the bed. Loki did the same. "I didn't know you cared!"

How preposterous! "Of course I care! You're my soulmate! I cannot let you be in danger!" Loki couldn't see Antony's face as his back was towards him, but he did not need to. Astonishment and a pang of guilt came from the mind bond, as well as, most surprisingly, a glimmer of hope and gladness. Whatever Anthony was happy about, he would not have the luxury of feeling that for long. Especially as he was walking in the wrong direction; any direction that was not the exit was the wrong direction. "Where are you going?"

"What? You don't expect me to go down like this, right? I'm only wearing my boxers—"

"I'm wearing my Jötunn skin, and yet I will still leave this room and witness you repair your… Arc reactor."

Tony blinked at him. "In your underwear?"

Loki looked down at said garment. It may not cover much, but it covered enough to not be outrageously indecent. It certainly was not worse than the leathery loincloths the Jötnar preferred. "It is not as if we were naked." For some reason, Anthony started to cough then. "And I don't see why our state of dress should be important when your life is in danger."

"My life isn't in danger! It's going to hold until after we're dressed! Tell him, J.A.R.V.'!"

"Your Arc reactor is working at twenty-three percent capacity, with a six-point-forty-three percent frequency discrepancy, Sir."

"See, no probl—"

"J.A.R.V.I.S.," Loki interrupted. "What are the numbers associated with a healthy Arc reactor?"

"At its peak efficiency, Sir's Arc reactor functions on average at ninety-nine-point-eight percent capacity, with a possible zero-point-zero-two percent frequency discrepancy, Mr Friggason."

Loki looked at Anthony unhappily, and the man mumbled: "J.A.R.V.I.S., you traitor."

"Anything to make your life better, Sir," the Artificial Intelligence chirped with an obvious false cheer, and Loki was impressed yet again by the being without body that his soulmate had created.

"We are going to your 'workshop' place immediately." Loki walked towards Anthony, using his approach to usher him towards the door without even having to touch him.

"This really isn't necessary, you know."

"I do not care."

Anthony sighed. "Yeah, I can see that." The sarcastic lilt of that statement was annoying, but Loki ignored it. Anthony was finally stepping out into the corridor, after all. In front of him, the Midgardian stopped in his tracks, apparently without reason; Loki was about to inquire why he did not continue walking, when panic and embarrassment shot along the bond, and he quickly stepped out of the room, only to find himself bared to Romanoff's raised eyebrow.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Tony's hand was hovering at chest level, torn between the need to slap it over his face with unnecessary intensity, and the irrational urge to hide his already covered crotch – his burgundy boxer-briefs were great, thank you very much, and this was only Natasha. Sure, that was scary enough in itself, but she wouldn't give a shit even if he was standing there naked. His other hand was hiding his Arc reactor from view; a stupid reflex he had when someone surprised him with their presence, ever since Obadiah. He tried to morph the movement into an overtly fake 'you almost gave me a heart attack', but again, this was Natasha. He doubted that would work. He lowered both hands in the most casual gesture he could muster. Which wasn't very casual, given the raised ginger eyebrow and the flickering stare between his own appearance and that of the almost-naked-gorgeous-blue-alien that stood next to him. (He was going to ignore the unexpected 'gorgeous' comment his subconscious had slipped in there for no reason).

He cleared his throat – which, yeah, mistake, that made him look just as embarrassed as he felt. "For what it's worth, can I just mention that this is absolutely not what it looks like?"

"Oh? And _what_ do you think it looks like?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "It's obviously a classic case of 'they spent the night in the same room and they're almost naked, oh my goodness, they must have slept together' scenario. Which is not true, by the way. I mean, sure, when spent most of the night in the same room, and we are almost naked, and we did sleep in the same bed so we did sleep together at the same time in the same bed but we didn't _sleep_ together, you know…"

He took a deep, and held it. This was going nowhere, and Natasha's lips were twitching like she was trying not to laugh. "Okay. Forget what I said, rewind, I'm starting over. It looks like, because we're soulmates, we have to stay in physical contact for a certain – unknown – amount of time per day, otherwise the bond-thing we have is gonna drive us stir crazy. AKA why Loki ended up in my room again. And didn't take the time to put on some PJs. And this morning, he unexpectedly turned blue, again, and couldn't become all smooth and porcelain-skinned again because of his general lack of magic at the moment. So he thought he could take some of mine through my Arc reactor like he did last time, but this guy," Tony tapped said Arc reactor with his thumb, "might not survive it 'cause it's kinda broke since it went into space. So when I said that, Lo' here kinda went crazy, which is why I'm being forced out of my room in my underwear to go change my fancy pace-maker right this instant. Which is stupid, because it's not just gonna stop on its own in the next five minutes."

Next to him, Loki crossed his arms over his chest in a rather foreboding gesture; his feelings were muffled again and Tony would need to concentrate on the bond to be able to identify them. "How long would it take to 'stop on its own', as you say?"

"I don't know! A very long time."

Loki eyes felt like lasers baring holes in his skull. "Liar."

"What? No, I'm not lying!"

"And that was a lie again. You do know this is futile, do you not?"

Tony sighed and crossed his arms as well. "Yeah, yeah, we're human – well, humanoid – lie-detectors. But it still wasn't so much a lie as it was an exaggerated uncertainty. I don't know the exact time this Arc reactor could fail, 'cause there isn't an exact frequency at which is systematically fails, so it would always be a rough estimate. Plus, the speed of the degradation of the frequency depends on how much energy I use, so I can't tell how long that will take if I don't know what I'm gonna do during the day. And anyway, 'a very long time' is always true, because time is relative, so. Wasn't lying."

"You were obscuring information with the purpose of keeping it from me. The soul bond will see that as lying."

"Great. Whatever. I still say that wasn't a lie." He turned his eyes away from Loki with a noiseless huff, and his gaze met that of a smiling Natasha. Oh boy!

"You two are so cute!" Ugh! Tony wondered if he had ever heard words more cringe-worthy than that. His eyes darted to Loki's face, and he was sure that the sour expression he saw there mirrored his own quite well. "Every time I doubt the whole soulmate story, you make me believe in it again by acting like an old married couple even if you haven't known each other for two full days." Tony opened his mouth to let out an indignant squawk or other – they did _not_ act like a married couple – but Natasha didn't give him the time. "Clint and I, we went from enemies to allies in a day too, but even our chemistry wasn't as unbelievably good as yours. You know that, right? That you're lucky?"

Loki snorted derisively. "I wouldn't call a death sentence 'lucky'."

Tony felt a pang of guilt; he had forgotten about that. To a millennia-old guy, the fifty or so potential years Tony had left would look like mere months from his point of view. "Right. That's not my fault, but for what it's worth… I'm sorry."

Loki's lips thinned, and after a heartbeat or two, he looked away. "You don't need to apologise. It is indeed not your fault." His crimson eyes delved into Tony's again, and an accusing finger with a black, sharp-looking nail touched the centre of his Arc reactor. "What you _can_ do, however, is make certain you don't take us back to Yggdrasil unnecessarily."

Tony let go of the breath he didn't know he'd been holding, and stepped back. "Right. Yes. Let's do that." He turned his attention back to the corridor and at the end of it, the next destination; the elevator. Except that the Black Widow was standing in the way. Why was she here, by the way? This corridor only gave access to Pepper's room – currently unoccupied, as Thor had left – and his room. "Why are you here? Did you want something?" he asked her.

"You mean apart from almost getting an eyeful? I came to tell you that Thor had left—"

"We know."

"— and that you're both invited to help clear rumble in the streets and so on at ten. Captain's orders. And as it's now eight-ish I thought I'd come wake you. Who knows how much time divas and drama queens like you need to be ready."

Tony scoffed exaggeratingly. "I resent that! I don't have long hair that needs constant styling, and I don't wear intricate leather and gold armour as casual clothes."

Natasha smirked. "Perhaps not. But you at least have a goatee that needs constant trimming. And I mean, it needs trimming, because the edges are disappearing into your stubble."

Tony automatically passed a hand over his cheek at the comment, and indeed it felt awfully rough. "I'll get to it once the _only_ drama queen here stops breathing down my neck. And to do that, I got to go change my little power plant here." He touched the rim of his Arc reactor and let his fingers linger there. "So… See ya." And he walked passed Natasha with a nod, bare feet slapping the black marble tiles. The elevator doors were open when he arrived, and he stepped inside at the same time as Loki. They closed behind him, leaving him alone with his soulmate again.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

The elevator plunged downwards, the numbers representing the levels decreasing rapidly, and Loki followed the progress of the red digits. He had learned that the ten topmost floors of the tower where those inhabited by Anthony, and that the rest of the tower was meant for the Stark Industries company, which seemed to be Anthony's livelihood – Loki was not certain how that worked exactly, but it was of no importance at the moment. Floor 0 represented earth level. Which meant that the negative number they just seemed to have stopped at – minus two – was situated underground. Loki involuntarily tensed. He did not like underground places much because they reminded him of the too many dungeons and dank cells he had seen in his life.

When the doors opened, however, the massive space that spread before him did not resemble anything dungeon-like. It was one humongous room divided in two by a glass wall. Beyond it colourful vehicles waited, while on this side the space was filled with various surfaces and machines, as well as many storage facilities that filled up the walls. One wall, however, displayed a rather lifelike image of a beach and a sunny sea, gentle waves licking at the shore every few seconds. This fake window might make one forget one was underground – perhaps Anthony preferred being above the surface as well.

His soulmate spread his arms wide. "Welcome to my workshop! And my personal garage. I like to have both on the same floor. Old habit of mine. I sometimes like to have a break and tinker on my cars instead to clear my mind."

He then proceeded to awkwardly walk to the left, as if the floor somehow disagreed with his feet, to where a steaming cup of coffee awaited him. He swooped the beverage up and drank long and deep, before putting the empty cup down and coming back towards Loki. Together they started walking towards a cluttered desk that seemed to be Anthony's main workplace.

"Shit! It's way colder here than I expected. This is why I don't go to my workshop half naked! Well, and also because it's dangerous. I haven't used this place much yet – it's still half empty, as you can see – but I did repair some stuff here yesterday, so there's always a chance there's something sharp lying on the floor somewhere, which is why I always have a 'shoes are obligatory' policy in place. So watch your step." Anthony wrapped his arms around himself, rubbing his skin exaggeratingly. Surely it could not be _that_ cold! ". J.A.R.V.', can you please up the temp?" Anthony glanced at him." You're lucky you're blue right now. Hey, do you know how cold cold is for a Frost Giant?"

What a silly question! Firstly, Loki did not understand the scales and numbers Midgardians used to describe temperature, and secondly, he had never had the occasion to test such a thing out, now had he? "As the Jötnar I've seen seemed fine walking around in an ice desert wearing barely more than I am now, I suppose that a frozen planet would simply seem chilly in the summer, and perhaps colder in the winter when they seem to wear a furry cape as well."

Anthony's face and feelings showed both astonishment and awe. "So, what, you could walk around Siberia naked without so much as a runny nose is what you're saying? Wow! And for you this temperature here is, like, warm?"

"I would say like an early summer day."

"How about the temperature in my penthouse?"

"Warmer, but not yet uncomfortable."

Anthony smirked. "You've got no idea how many tests I'd like to run right now, and I'm not even into biology! Don't tell Bruce this, or he'd strap you to a table and scan you all over, and he'd have a field day, no doubt! Scientist are scary like that. Beware of scientists!"

"Are you not a 'scientist' as well?"

"Exactly!" And Anthony walked away without another word, as if that explained everything. And in a way, Loki supposed it did. Many would say 'beware of magic-wielders' as well: they knew things about the universe that others did not, and usually liked to experiment a lot – some of that experimentation could involve unsuspecting subjects.

"Are you coming?" Anthony asked from where he had stopped to look over his shoulder, about ten yards away – Loki had received an explanation from J.A.R.V.I.S. of the Metric and Imperial systems yesterday when it appeared in one of the novels he was reading.

They walked up to a wall with glass display cases, most of them empty, but one of them showed an Iron Man armour that Loki did not know – he supposed this had to be an older model, as it seemed somewhat bulkier and less refined in its details. Still, it was an impressive technological feat, given most of Midgard's scientific and technological knowledge Loki had read about. He knew his soulmate was the best in his technological field; just like Loki was the best sorcerer currently roaming the Nine Realms – the only difference was that Anthony was recognised as such and acclaimed for it, while Loki was, more often than not, disregarded and cursed alike.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., the safe."

"Are you certain, Sir?"

"Well, duh! Why do you think I ask?" A piece of wall with two empty display cases started moving into the wall, and then aside, revealing a huge metal door. "You don't really believe Loki is going to steal any of my secret prototypes, do you? Because that would be a very stupid move, soulmate-wise, and Loki is anything but stupid."

"Whatever you say, Sir."

Anthony walked up to a device that was installed in the wall next to the safe's door, and put his hand on it. He then proceeded to align his eye at the level of another device, and Loki was reminded of Stuttgart and the reason why he had had to steal a mortal's eye. Why were humans so obsessed with protecting their safes with eye-reading devices?

"Password?" J.A.R.V.I.S. drawled in a strange way.

"Caput Draconis." The huge metal door swung slowly outward in complete silence, forcing Loki to step back.

"A Gryffindor password. Why am I not surprised?"

"Because you're a Slytherin, and you scoff at anything Gryffindor-ish. I put the whole password thing up yesterday when I learned you read Harry Potter, just in case I let you inside my safe one of these days. I didn't expect it to happen so soon, though. But hey, you reacted exactly like I expected." Anthony threw him an arrogant smirk. "You're so predictable."

Loki let a sneer stretch his mouth in return. "Do continue to believe that, little Gryffindor."

Anthony laughed, and when he stopped, an amused grin remained on his face. "So scary! The pointy teeth and the red eyes are a nice combo. With that expression, you could be some poor kid's boggart all right!" Loki's face fell. A boggart: the creature that showed people their biggest fear in those silly Harry Potter novels. A creature that showed you your monsters. If boggarts existed, would they show Loki his own, Jötunn self?

Anthony looked at him with worry. "Never mind my big stupid mouth. I talked without thinking again. Your face isn't scary, it's beautiful. And sure, you can _make_ your face look scary, but so can many, many people, and they don't have to be blue to do it. I'd like to be able to make my face look genuinely scary, but when I try people never seem to believe me and I don't know why. It sure would be practical if I could make my enemies flee in terror with just a look. Instead I need a whole suit of armour armed to the teeth. Go figure!"

Anthony turned around and stepped inside the safe, which was in fact almost as large as his bedroom. Loki hesitated before he entered. If this room contained his soulmate's most secret projects, was seeing its contents the equivalent of Loki showing him the spells he had invented himself? Was this a show of awe-inspiring trust because they were soulmates and shared every single thing they had, or was this simply Anthony belittling Loki's intelligence and thinking he could not possibly do anything that would put his secrets in jeopardy?

"So, I put the sceptre in the box there in the back, so if you don't want to get near the thing, you've been warned. Most of the dangerous and/or volatile things are boxed up and stuff, but sometimes I forget, so better not touch anything, just in case. A lot of these things are weapons dating back from when they called me 'The Merchant of Death'. Nice title, right? So very flattering. I wonder what they'd have called me if I'd put any of these on the market. Probably 'The Bringer of Apocalypse' or maybe 'The Planet Murderer'. Reminds me of that one journalist who called me the Anti-Christ. Funny guy that. Still hasn't changed his tune even though I'm Iron Man and I sell electricity etcetera instead of weapons."

Anthony walked over to a door about a square foot big at shoulder height, and entered a code to open it. Loki slowly approached, keeping away from the shelves on the walls and the boxes that filled the centre of the room. "Anyway, who cares about all the rest, when there is this." The door opened wide and revealed the treasure it held. "I present to you the crown jewel of the collection: a brand-new Arc reactor."

With a smile, Anthony picked up a big cylinder with an attached wire that had the same diameter as the Arc reactor in his chest and that shone the same Tesseract-like blue, but it was so very long! How could something of that size be placed in his fragile mortal chest? Or worse: how could he intend to take out something that kept him alive and replace it, when that something was so unnatural, and so big, and so full of energy it shone like a miniature star? Loki eyes strayed to Anthony's chest again, and the only thing that gripped his heart was an overwhelming sense of dread and fear.

* * *

Poor blue Loki! He's so not ready to see Tony rip his own Arc reactor out XD Let's make him suffer :p *evil smirk*

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	16. Chapter 16

Hi there! Are you ready for some Arc-reactor-tinted fun? Not that Loki finds it very fun, mind you :p And I have an important announcement at the end of the fic so don't forget to read the end note ;)

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _With a smile, Anthony picked up a big cylinder with an attached wire that had the same diameter as the Arc reactor in his chest and that shone the same Tesseract-like blue, but it was so very long! How could something of that size be placed in his fragile mortal chest? Or worse: how could he intend to take out something that kept him alive and replace it, when that something was so unnatural, and so big, and so full of energy it shone like a miniature star? Loki eyes strayed to Anthony's chest again, and the only thing that gripped his heart was an overwhelming sense of dread and fear._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 16**

"Whoa! Calm down, Loks, it's fine!" Anthony grabbed his arm, and Loki could finally, finally take his eyes off his soulmate's chest. "I've done this a thousand times before, no worries. I know it looks imposing when you've never seen it in its entirety before – Pepper was seriously worried and grossed out the first time too – but it's going to be fine. Come, let's do this sitting down, shall we?" And without letting go of Loki's arm, Anthony took them back to his desk and sat him in the only chair available.

"Okay, first things first. Can you use the reactor alone to change your skin? Because if you don't have to zap my own energy, that would be great. Here, take it."

Anthony pushed the Arc reactor into Loki's hands and let go. The moment he did, the raw magic, with its unnatural flow and metallic aftertaste, flared to life under Loki's fingertips – as if it was lashing out to him, as if the loss of its creator's touch made it more savage as a result. Even if Loki managed to control the bright and harsh flame of this energy source – which would be a challenge in and of itself – he doubted he could shape it in any complicated spell form, and he could definitely not use it for something like shapeshifting. Shapeshifting required magic in every cell of his body; magic that needed to be familiar to these cells, otherwise it would be rejected and the transformation would fail. Only his own magic signature would be accepted – the magic signature he shared with Anthony.

"Unfortunately, I cannot use this directly," he said, and Anthony sighed.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised. There was no way things were gonna be easy for once." Anthony plucked the device out of Loki's fingers, and the instant they both touched the Arc reactor, Loki's theory was confirmed – the energy calmed marginally and hummed in delight at its creator's touch. Magic remembered, it always did. That was why compatibly with an artefact was so important, after all.

Anthony leaned against his desk, half sitting on the edge of it, and put the Arc reactor down next to him. He bent over a drawer and took out a cloth and a bottle, which he then used to spray something all over the energy source, the tiny liquid particles shining in the blue glow. And then, after wetting his own hands and chest with whatever potion that was, he pushed against the defective Arc reactor and turned, and Loki's breath caught in anticipation and horror, his eyes so wide he felt as if they would never close again.

The round device was slowly being pulled out, further and further, revealing once again how deep it truly went; then, only a wire remained, the only thing keeping the energy connected to Anthony's heart, and his soulmate simply yanked it out with a snap and a grunt. Air rasped the back of his throat when Loki abruptly inhaled, and he was on his feet before he knew it, hands hovering in Anthony's direction even though he did not know what to do, mouth hanging open in silent protest even though he did not know what to say.

The old Arc reactor, dripping with pus, was set down on the desk, and a cloth was hastily swiped around the gaping hole rimmed with metal that Loki could not tear his gaze away from. In the depth of that cavity lay his soul-mate's heart, threatened by piercing shards that wanted nothing more than burry themselves further and end the life of a brilliant mind and a half-soul as cynical and jaded as his own. At every passing second Loki's own heart beat louder and louder in his ears, as if to compensate for the missing vigour in the one beating in front of him.

Anthony's hand stopped mid-swipe, and Loki's eyes darted to the piercing brown gaze of his counterpart – his soulmate, his life, his heart! – and the fluttering panic that crept up his every limb and settled like a stone in his stomach froze his whole body in place. "Stop that!" Anthony hissed, his lips curling up in a snarl just as much as his eyebrows slanted downward in a frown. "How am I supposed to concentrate when you throw so much feeling at me? Relax, will you? I've done this a bunch of times already, it's gonna be fine!"

Loki tried to take a calming breath while Anthony picked up the new Arc reactor and with the wire between his fingers _plunged inside his own chest cavity_ – and how was he supposed to relax when he was so blatantly confronted to his soulmate's frailty, his mortality? How many times had the other half of his soul almost died before he did, how close had the man before him been to waiting for Loki in Helheimr for the next millennia without even knowing who Loki was? How many chances had the mortal taken that would have resulted in them never meeting before death, before they could truly know each other as they were, before they joined Yggdrasil again and changed forever? Loki's lungs were drawing in air and expelling it so quickly that it was as useful as not breathing at all would have been.

Anthony's hand was turning at different angles, obviously looking for something in the depth of his chest, and Loki was – embarrassingly – starting to feel a bit faint. The Midgardian let out a frustrated breath, sent Loki a glare, and rooted around some more. Suddenly, there was a click, barely audible and yet so loud it resonated in Loki's every bone, and the Arc reactor exploded with joy and life, the magic inside it singing so loud its delight to become one with its creator that Loki was almost blinded by the magical residue that permeated the air. With a turn and a few ticks Anthony's chest was whole again, and Loki took a step back and sunk into the chair, light-headed and fingers prickling and trembling.

"Well, that was fun! I'm so not doing that in front of you ever again."

Loki wanted to agree to that statement whole-heartedly – though, maybe not, what if next time something terrible happened? Even if he had known what to answer, it was not as if he could do it at the moment; he was still breathing horribly fast in something akin to panic. Which could not be right, because Loki did _not_ panic! And yet his lungs were out of control; and yet his hands, so ugly, so blue, felt like they did not belong to his body; and yet his sight was blurry at the edges. He blinked, slowly, with difficulty, and after a few attempts his vision cleared enough to realise that Tony was now crouching in front of his chair, eyes wide.

"Jesus! Are you crying? Are you having a panic attack _and_ you're crying? I mean it's more difficult to tell because I'm not familiar with blue-alien physiology in situations of distress, but the kind of crystal-snowflake-thingies that fell from the corners of your eyes were tears, right? You know, I gotta say, I'm awful when people are crying. I really don't know what to do, so you're kinda making me panic too – and for no reason whatsoever, might I add. I've got the whole Arc reactor exchange thing down pat, you know. I had to change reactors a lot when the damn thing was poisoning me, so, I think I can call myself an exper—"

Loki had been listening with half an ear while Anthony was rambling on and on, concentrating on his voice more than his words and getting his breathing back to normal – but that did not mean he had not heard what his soulmate had just said. "Poisoning?" he echoed, voice half-breaking because of the thickness in the back of his throat.

"Um… Yeah, no, that was before, with the first version, you know. Palladium. Not good for humans. But it's okay, I changed it to this one. This one is fine. I think. New element and all that, can't be sure at one hundred percent, but I've seen no evidence of problems, and in theory it should be fine, so…"

"In theory?" Loki was not 'panicking' anymore. Definitely not. That did not mean he was now calm, though. On the contrary, the anger he had felt earlier, when his soulmate risked his life for nothing, was coming back at an alarming rate.

"Well, yeah, duh, in theory! I invented this element! Or, well, discovered it, more like. On Earth. Because no way there isn't at least one place in the universe where someone else hasn't the same element as I do. But still, there is no other information about it here except for the tests I've done, so I only have theories, yes."

Theories! Of course Anthony would be so reckless and use an Arc reactor which did not harm him _in theory_! Which wasn't poisoning him _in theory_! Loki's hands curled into fists, and his teeth were bared when he spoke, seething. "Anthony! You—"

"No! No, not Anthony: Tony! Listen God damn it, for once in your life! Stop calling me Anthony! I'm Tony. Tony, okay? Just… Forget Anthony. Forget that fucking name. You got problems with your dad, well I had problems with mine, and the name is part of it. So please. Just, please. Okay?" His soulmate's voice had gone from a half-scream to a half-whisper, and Anthony – no, Tony, he should think of him as Tony – really looked, and through the bond, felt, exhausted. Just as exhausted as Loki felt after that convoluted Bifrost ride of emotions he had experienced since this morning. He sighed.

"Very well, Tony."

Antho— Tony's smile started shy and small, but shortly grew almost blindingly bright. "Great!" he said and grabbed Loki's wrist to pull him out of his chair, the normal-looking skin a stark contrast to the deep blue he was still wearing. Loki really wanted out of this skin, but when he thought about using Tony's magic so rapidly after his Arc reactor exchange… Perhaps his mortal body needed some time to adapt to the new energy source… Yes, Loki would grit his teeth and wait some more, just to be safe.

He was pulled – quite literally – out of his musings when Tony dragged him towards the elevator. "Let's get out of here and get something to eat! But first, let's put on some clothes, because there are a lot more guests in my tower than I initially wanted, and strolling into my own kitchen like this would be rather embarrassing." Even after the metal doors closed, the warm hand still encircled his wrist. And for some unknown reason, he was not averse to it.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

When the elevator doors pinged – J.A.R.V.I.S. just did that to annoy him, the bastard – and opened, it was not on his floor, but on one of the guest floors. It took Tony a minute to figure out why; but hey, he'd only had one cup of coffee, who could blame him? And it was only when Loki didn't move that he realised he was still holding the cool, blue-skinned wrist – had been holding the entire time! God, what had possessed him? He wasn't such a touchy-feely person anyway; sure, sometimes he patted someone on the shoulder or something, but he never _held_ onto anyone! Even Pepper and him had barely held hands and stuff! Sure, Loki and him weren't holding hands, but it was close enough! Or, well, Tony was the one holding onto Loki like some lost child or something – and making it worse _by not letting go_! Fuck (almost)-caffeineless mornings and his stupid obviously-still-sleeping brain! Tony let go, and Loki walked out without a word, which, yeah, that was better than acknowledging… whatever _that_ was.

"Er…" Loki stopped, but didn't turn around. The feelings of the bond were muffled again, and Tony couldn't distinguish whatever that strange mix of feelings meant, but maybe Loki was a bit embarrassed by Tony's weird behaviour – Tony was kind of grossed out at himself anyway, so he got that. He just continued speaking instead. "You can bring your stuff to my room later today, 'cause it looks like you're my official roommate from now on, so…" Loki's face half-turned towards him and gave him what looked like a curt nod before he continued towards his guest room. Just before the elevator doors closed, Tony added: "And don't wear something too fancy! We have cleaning duty after breakfast!"

Once he arrived in his bedroom, he made a beeline for the walk-in closet. He took out an old faded tee and his preferred 'tinkering' jeans – with a hole or two and stains that wouldn't come out – and quickly changed into them. He found his most comfortable sneakers among the rows and rows of shoes, and after he'd slipped them on, he looked the closet over again. A lot of clothes were hanging to keep them wrinkle-free, but the more casual clothes were folded. He hadn't been the one who moved his wardrobe – well, his New York wardrobe – into it, and there were some ridiculous shelving choices that he could change so that some room could be made. T-shirts had been piled up by colour, with only one coloured piled per square-shelving-space, but if he pushed them to the side a second pile could sit next to it easily enough. After a few pile displacements, three shelves were free for whatever clothes Loki had at the moment. He'd reorganise the rest later to make more room.

He came out of the closet – wait, no, no, no, he _walked_ out of the closet – and went straight to the bathroom to get rid of that stubble that looked more and more like the beginning of a full beard, and brushed his teeth while he was at it. After a quick re-acquaintance with the joys of modern toilets – he wondered if Asgardian toilets were magical, or similar to human ones, or more like pot chambers – where he saved his bladder from an untimely demise due to explosion, he made his way to the kitchen and the promise of unhealthy sugary foods it held.

Bruce sat at the table, nursing a cup of tea, and Steve was standing in front of the stove, and when Tony walked past he smelled the delightful scent of bacon, and he spotted some eggs frying as well. "Morning!" he said cheerfully while he went straight to the coffee-machine.

"Good morning," Steve answered. "Would you like some bacon and eggs?"

"Uhm, sure, but isn't that your—"

"I've already eaten. This is for you and Loki. If you both want some. You can also eat those things you call cereal but that I really don't think contains much cereal."

Captain America was standing in Tony's kitchen, making him breakfast. This was crazy! First off, his father would be so jealous! Second, his child-self would have been over the moon. Third, there had been some kind of truce since the end of the battle against the Chitauri, but he couldn't say they were friends or something, right? So why was this happening? And last but not least, there was breakfast not just for him, but for Loki as well, a former very-recent-enemy, just because Tony trusted him – and yes, Tony trusted him. Which was actually the craziest thing of all; how could Tony trust anyone this quickly? He didn't even trust his fellow Avengers who had officially been allies since the start – well, except Clint, but that was a special case, having been brainwashed and all. Tony took a swig of his now full cup of heavenly brew to distract him from his disturbing thoughts.

Steve handed him a plate with toast, bacon and sunny side up eggs. "Do you know when Loki is coming?"

Tony concentrated on the thread connecting him to his soulmate and mentally followed it to its other end. "I think he's stepping into the elevator."

Steve frowned, puzzled. "How can you know that?"

"I can feel where he is. There is like a thread connecting us, so I always know where he is, and he always knows where I am."

"You seem awfully calm about that," Bruce commented. "I would have thought you would complain much more about the lack of privacy and the whole 'sharing your life with a stranger' thing."

"Yes, well. There is not much that can be done about it, so. I just gotta deal. Bitching about it is useless." And continuously complaining about his situation was even more exhausting that the whole situation itself. And anyway, he wasn't even sure how he felt about it right now. Except for 'weirded out'; that was a constant, no matter what. But at least he hadn't been bored for even a second since Loki's arrival on Earth – at least his soulmate was interesting.

Tony had put his plate and coffee down on the table and had walked back to the cutlery drawer when Loki stopped coming towards him; he had stopped just shy of the eating area. Why was he hesitating? Tony was torn between going to him and letting him be. He decided to give Loki a minute and let him come whenever he decided to come – if that meant his breakfast was cold, well. That wouldn't be Tony's fault.

Tony had barely lifted a forkful to his mouth when Loki tugged on the thread – not too hard, but still not as gently as he should have, as the jerk on his chest made his arm react accordingly and his piece of egg fell back on the plate. Tony sighed and put his cutlery back down. Why the hell couldn't the guy just come and eat like everybody else?

When he spotted Loki, his steps almost faltered. The alien was wearing a tee and sweatpants that clung to his body, showing off all his muscles and curves where it counted – how could the guy look so good in freaking sweatpants? Then there was the whole short-loose-braid-slung-over-one-shoulder situation that just looked sinful. And all that combined with the best ever skin colour in the universe… Yeah, his steps almost faltered from surprise when confronted to that vision, that's for sure!

It took him a moment to get his voice back. "What are you doing standing here? Why didn't you just come in?"

"What do you think? I'm still wearing my Jötunn skin!"

"So? I wouldn't mind if you walked around like this all the time, you know. But I guess it's kinda impractical in public. Lot of gawking. Still, the others have seen you like this already. I doubt they'll mind."

" _I_ mind!"

"Yeah, I know. Not that I really understand it but…" Tony sighed. "Alright. Let's do it then. On the condition you do it in the kitchen where I can sit down and eat afterwards." And Tony left him no choice and just walked back to his seat at the table.

Loki hesitated in the doorway, just out of sight, and Tony tugged on their thread in annoyance; finally, Loki came out, and primly sat down next to Tony, where Steve had put down the other plate of food, with accompanying cutlery and a glass of milk – a glass of milk had also appeared next to Tony's plate, even though he had no intention of drinking that when there was coffee.

Loki ignored the food and turned in his chair, angling himself towards Tony in an obvious request – or rather, demand. Reluctantly, Tony obliged and turned his torso towards his soulmate. Loki put his hand over the Arc reactor, and the reaction was almost instantaneous. Even though their skin wasn't touching, their bond thrummed with life and he felt as if sparks were almost flying off of their connection. And that is when the draining started. It was subtle, but because Tony knew what was happening, he could feel it, some energy leaving him, going through his Arc reactor and into Loki, whose skin gradually lost its blue hue, and Tony followed the colour as it bled from his face and eyes.

And those eyes! From blood red to the greenest green – greener than an emerald, with more depth and shine than any gem – and every time it was like he saw them for the first time, and they were so green! They had to become greener after every transformation, there was no other explanation possible. This had to be some kind of spell, some enchantment, because those eyes got more surreal every time. The irises were rimmed with a darker green, like a pine forest surrounding a lush clearing full of bright green saplings, jade and olive bushes, and lime-coloured grass flecked with golden flowers – was that where the inspiration of a green and gold armour came from? – surrounding a slowly expanding pool of bottomless black in which Tony's very being was helplessly drowning.

And then Bruce cleared his throat.

* * *

Loki's finally thinking of Tony as 'Tony'! That took me a while XD

Who else wants to lose themselves in Loki's eyes? *raises hand like a Hermione Granger*

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**

PS: NO CHAPTER FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKENDS! I'm gonna be on holiday (aka a place without much internet). So this fanfic's summer break is upon us! I should be back around the 20th ;) Good luck surviving without your weekly dose of Tony and Loki :p


	17. Chapter 17

Hey people! I'm back! I know, you missed me ;) Two weekends without updates – did you manage all right? XD Anyway, here is the next chapter! Go at it!

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _And those eyes! From blood red to the greenest green – greener than an emerald, with more depth and shine than any gem – and every time it was like he saw them for the first time, and they were so green! They had to become greener after every transformation, there was no other explanation possible. This had to be some kind of spell, some enchantment, because those eyes got more surreal every time. The irises were rimmed with a darker green, like a pine forest surrounding a lush clearing full of bright green saplings, jade and olive bushes, and lime-coloured grass flecked with golden flowers – was that were the inspiration of a green and gold armour came from? – surrounding a slowly expanding pool of bottomless black in which Tony's very being was helplessly drowning._

 _And then Bruce cleared his throat._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 17**

At the sound – a reminder of the other Midgardians' presence – Loki wrenched his hand away from his soulmate's chest, but more importantly, wrenched his eyes away from the mortal's and turned towards his food, scooping the cooling fare up and gulping it down even though his earlier hunger had dissipated along with his shapeshifting. Or during the uncharacteristically long time he had spent looking at Tony's face. He preferred to blame the shapeshifting.

He had not intended to look at his soulmate's face at all; during the transformation he had been focused inward, shifting the nature of his every cell using as little of Tony's magic as he could, but when he emerged from his concentration he was bombarded with his soulmate's swirling mix of surprise, confusion and disbelief, and he had looked straight back at Tony to – somehow – try to discern where those groundless feelings were coming from, as he knew his shapeshifting had been a success.

His gaze first darted over the mortal's face, noting again the small wrinkles on his slightly tanned face, the freshly trimmed goatee and the controlled waves of his short brown hair, stopping at the dark brown of Tony's eyes that were peering in his own. There was nothing really remarkable in his soulmate's face, and in most of the Nine Realms he would be considered rather plain – especially given his smaller stature. And yet the symmetry of it was rather pleasing to the eye, and among the Æsir, where blond hair and blue eyes was the norm, he would appear to be somewhat exotic. Slowly flicking his gaze from one black pupil to another, he noticed that the brown was not as uniform and not as dark as he had first thought, and the eyelashes surrounding them, not especially long but markedly thick, made the look of those clever eyes quite striking.

Loki didn't know how long he had stared in his soulmate's eyes, but it certainly had been too long, as was evident by his hurried inhalation – he had, at some unknown point, stopped breathing – after Doctor Banner had reminded them of his presence. Loki did his best to ignore the others in the room – even though Tony's shining presence was impossible to disregard – and pretended to only pay attention to his food. This way, he could feign a lack of embarrassment he did not feel by pretending everything was normal and fine. In silence. Tony, on the other hand, seemed to be more prone to deflect his embarrassment – which burned along the bond like wildfire – by speaking.

"Sooo. Cap— Steve. Awesome breakfast. We both thank you for your kindness. Don't we, Lo'?"

Loki would have happily ignored the Midgardians around him and continued eating said breakfast, but the annoying twinging of the bond's thread forced him to acknowledge the conversation; he threw a glare towards Tony, and turned towards the commander of the Avengers team. "Indeed. Thank you, Captain." He added a small smile to make the sentiment look more genuine – it was best if the soft-hearted soldier remained on his side after all – and when the following silence was just long enough, he turned back towards his plate to dredge up the last remnants of food.

Mortals certainly ate small portions. It was sustaining him for now, but he might need to eat more if he wanted his magical core to heal at a normal rate. As if his thoughts were written on his face for all to see – and he was certain they were not – both Steve Rogers and Tony started talking at once.

"Oh! This isn't enough, is it? I forgot. I often forget it about myself too."

"I bet you just thought of the humongous amount of food you usually eat! How much do you usually eat?"

The mix of two voices was not easy to understand, but Loki caught Tony's question at least. "About three to four times this portion for breakfast. More at other meals."

Tony's laughter was tinged with disbelief. "I could, like, maybe eat two and a half and I'd be totally stuffed! You aliens sure eat a lot!"

"I'm considered a light eater."

"You're shitting me!"

Loki lifted an eyebrow. "Have you not seen Thor eat?"

"Yeah. Okay. Light eater, got it. How about peanut butter jelly sandwiches?"

Loki couldn't resist the instinctual desire to cock his head at that curious and indecipherable name of a meal – he thought it was supposed to be a meal, anyway. Before he could even ask what it was, Tony had pushed his own half-finished plate towards Loki. "Here, you eat this, and I'll make us the best food this planet has to offer! If I can find the ingredients, of course. J.A.R.V.'?"

And while J.A.R.V.I.S. rattled off a list of names and locations and cupboards banged, Loki finished his soulmate's plate. Rogers hovered between the table and the kitchen, unsure if he should help. Banner's gaze was insistent, prickling his skin, but Loki only looked up after the last morsel was gone.

"Please don't judge Earth's food based on what Tony tells you," the doctor said in a soft voice and a small smile was directed at his overly excited soulmate. "I'm pretty sure he has eaten in the most expensive restaurants out there. The fact that they're expensive doesn't mean they serve the best food there is, but… He has to have eaten something better than peanut butter. It isn't because it is his favourite that it is humanity's best. My favourite is Murgh Kari, but I won't be telling you it's the best thing in the world, because it all depends on what you like."

After that little unnecessary speech, the doctor stood up to bring his empty cup away, and Loki looked on while Tony vigorously scrapped the inside of a pot with a knife, while Rogers looked on with a frown, obviously disapproving of whatever his soulmate was doing. Not long after, all three mortals headed back towards the table, Tony sitting back down next to him while the others took a seat opposite them. Their curiosity was almost palpable in the air.

"There you go! A dozen peanut butter and blueberry jam sandwiches. It's like the only thing I know how to make besides coffee, but that only means I got to practise this until I perfected it, and perfect it I did! I could live a whole month only eating peanut butter jelly! With some supplements. Because it isn't the heathiest of food. But it tastes great so who cares?" Tony picked up a sandwich and bit into it.

Loki eyed the food distrustfully. Until now, it had seemed like his soulmate liked to eat a variety of things, among which overly sugary sustenance that Loki had absolutely detested. And the purplish-blue colour bleeding out of the side of one of these sandwiches was not very promising. With all eyes on him, he gingerly took one of the triangles and brought it to his mouth. The smell in itself was strange and unlike anything he had ever smelled before. He mentally prepared himself for disaster and took a small bite. He let it rest on his tongue for a moment before starting to chew, but there was no horribly sugary taste so far. He slowly munched on the piece, and all the flavours met his taste buds at high velocity, exploding in his mouth in a surprisingly good combination of sweet-but-not-too-sweet, fruitiness and some sort of nut. Loki took a heartier bite, deciding that this food would do for this morning.

Tony smiled. "Told you!" He then put the last piece of his sandwich in his mouth, and proceeded to lick his fingers afterwards, as some of its contents had escaped the slices of bread and smeared his skin. It took Loki a moment to realise he had stopped chewing, half of a sandwich held aloft, and his gaze following the movements of Tony's tongue. He quickly looked away and ate faster.

What in the Norns' name was wrong with him? He wasn't supposed to get so distracted by Tony! He wasn't supposed to let anything or anyone influence him anymore – not the bond, not magic, not the other half of his soul! Not anymore! He had already suffered too much because of Odin, and Thanos, and he wouldn't let Lady Fate win as well! He wouldn't let his life become just like any other Myth of Soul-Mates, he wouldn't be as stupid as his brother and fall for a mortal! Except now, his lifespan had become just as short as Tony's. Except now, seeing how much the bond robbed him of his freedom, he understood why there were no soulmates in separate relationships. And yet… And yet, he would not let that dictate his choices! This time, he was going to protect his battered heart from further harm for as long as he could manage.

Tony was looking at him oddly, and he realised his hold on his shielding of the bond was shaky at best, so he strengthened it and resumed eating with more vigour. If he was not mistaken, the time to return to the ground, among the people that had been hurt because of him and his mind's weakness, was soon upon them, and even though he dreaded walking among that many mortals without the full protection of his magic, it would be a good distraction from his own, traitorous thoughts.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Tony had thought the sandwiches had been a success, considering Loki's tastes – and distaste for sweet stuff. The one he'd eaten had been perfect, if he may say so himself, and only a fool could hate the excellence of peanut butter and blueberry jam carefully brought together in flawless proportions. And it looked like Loki was no fool, obviously. But then there had been that odd mix of feelings coming to him in greater and greater waves, peeks of anger emerging from time to time. People usually didn't get angry at sandwiches, right? Their problem usually was with the sandwich maker. But then, Loki didn't look angry at him, though he did devour the sandwiches in a very Thor-like style – AKA like someone who hadn't eaten in weeks, even though they'd eaten five minutes ago. He'd just have to wait and see what that was all about, then.

The last two members of their weird team of not so heroic super-heroes – only Steve Rogers had the saint-like qualities described in most fictional stories – walked into the room. Natasha sat down on the edge of the table, but Clint kept his distance, gaze going wearily from Loki, still seated and polishing off his plate, to Tony, standing beside his soulmate. He stared. And stared. The wary looks on that frowning face were unnerving Tony, and he couldn't stand it anymore.

"What is it, Tweety?"

Clint scowled even more. "Oh, nothing, Stark. Just trying to reconcile your words and your deeds, is all."

Now it was Tony's turn to frown. "What the hell's that's supposed to mean?"

"Just that yesterday you were all like: sure, we're soulmates but not _soulmates_ , you know, we slept together but didn't _sleep_ together, you know. And then at three A.M. you both end up in the same room again, and come out almost naked, again, to do God knows what in the basement, only wearing boxers, and now you're making him sandwiches, so. You'll understand my confusion when you say you're not _together_ , but you act like you are. So I'm wondering if you _are_ a traitor, or if you're just unknowingly _acting_ like one. Because he brainwashed you, for example."

Tony didn't know if he should burst out laughing or pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration. "You're still watching Lo's movements on your phone at all hours? I think it's time I cancelled your subscription."

Loki had finished his sandwiches now, and he was watching the archer as well, annoyance and mild amusement barely distinguishable behind the shielded bond – that reminded Tony that he needed to do something about that fast, it wasn't very fair that Loki could feel his state of mind so easily.

"If I could freely use my seiðr and if I was controlling Tony in any way, I would not have had him make me these sandwiches of strange origin, but something I'm more used to. Like roasted _elgr_."

Tony's eyebrows went up. "Roasted what now?"

"An animal that vaguely resembling an elk. Though I don't know if it tastes remotely similar."

"You eat roasted elk first thing in the morning?"

"Amongst other things, yes."

"You people are weird."

"I could say the same thing about Midgardians, and that whatever their regional origin. Although I would not have used such a poorly phrase statement."

"Of course you wouldn't, mister British-ish accent and half-Shakespearian-word-user."

"You do know you are making no sense, yes?"

"It isn't because _you_ don't understand what I say that I'm not making sense. And how come you read Harry Potter and not Shakespeare?"

"Of course I read Shakespeare. I'm merely denying your mistaken analogy."

"Will you two stop it?" Clint yelled, obviously exasperated by what some might call friendly banter, or – as Tony just realised others (crazy others) might see it – domesticity. "Even if you're not brainwashed, you're at least totally compromised."

"Compromised? What do you think I am? A spy?"

"You're completely mad if you don't see that he's playing you."

Tony leered. "Right. Well, I won't deny I'm crazy, I'm a scientist after all."

"I resent that," muttered Bruce.

"But I'll be impressed," Tony continued, "if he can play me on this level – as in the whole soulmate gig level – knowing that I can feel his feelings, and more importantly, I know when he lies to me."

He could feel Loki smirk even without looking at him. "Is that a challenge?"

"No, dear, it was merely a fact." Irritation hit him in the back of his mind and he smirked – Loki knew as well as he did that they wouldn't truly be able to deceive each other on anything big, and maybe not even on anything small, not truly. Not knowing how clever they _both_ were. "So Clint. Sorry to burst your bubble, but the guy that brainwashed _you_ may have looked like Loki, sounded like Loki and acted kinda like Loki, but it wasn't _Loki_. The sooner you get that through that thick skull of yours, the better off we'll all be." Clint looked at him with disgust, arms crossed over his chest. "The others don't look like they have much of a problem with the whole thing. And that's the key right there, Merida. They can at least _pretend_ like they're okay with it. We pretend like we're okay with it, don't we Lo'?" Loki remained sullenly silent. "Okay, so maybe he doesn't like to pretend either. But you don't want to be like Loki, do you Clint?"

That at least seemed to work slightly, because the S.H.I.E.L.D. assassin made an obvious effort to scowl less, even though his lips remained thinned. "Do it for the team," Tony added, because treating the guy like a child seemed to work just now, and amazingly it worked again. With difficulty Clint uncurled his fists, and with tension remaining in every muscle, he said sourly:

"I'll try."

Tony was tempted to say 'good boy!', but that would have undone all his work, so he forced an approving smile on his face and turned to Steve. In the process he caught Natasha's eye briefly, and her smirk was scary as hell, but he feigned not to have seen it.

"So, it's about ten. When are we going down to sweep floors and condemn buildings and the like – which I assume is half as much a publicity stunt as it is to truly help out the people."

Steve looked affronted. "It's not a publicity stunt! It's our duty to help!"

"You mean it's our duty because there are people in need, or because we caused a lot of the damage ourselves?" Tony asked. Steve had his mouth opened, ready to answer, but he wasn't fast enough.

"I didn't cause damage," Clint said helpfully. "If anyone is to blame, it's him!" And then he pointed, unsurprisingly, at Loki.

"I did not destroy this city. I did not even damage a single building."

Tony sighed, shaking his head theatrically. "Clint, Clint, Clint. What did we just talk about? Pretend, remember? That wasn't pretending. So try again. And you're wrong, like always. Loki didn't damage anything. I did, for one. And Bruce did, mostly. The rest was of course the Chitauri. But as a team, we take responsibility together. And as the brainwashed idiot who made the whole thing possible, Loki's helping too, even though technically nothing he did at the time was his fault. So let's all be friends, kiss and make up and all that shit, and see what we can do for New York City."

Tony stepped away from the table, ready to make his way towards the elevator – he'd need to see which suit was in a good enough state to help him lift blocks of concrete and all that – but a new voice came from behind him.

"Not so fast, Stark."

Where did those people come from? How could they go past J.A.R.V.I.S. unnoticed? And why did this voice sound so familiar? Tony turned towards the voice's owner, and froze in place, eyes wide. Next to him, Loki sprung up, startled as well.

"Good morning, members of the Avengers Initiative. And Loki." The man's eye's locked onto his soulmate for an instant, but his expression did not change. "Turns out Director Fury jumped to the wrong conclusion."

"You mean he lied," Tony said in an even tone. He didn't even know why he was surprised by shit anymore.

"Well, I'm alive and well," Agent – otherwise known as Phil Coulson, but Tony definitely preferred to use Agent right now – said with a jovial smile. "Sorry that you were misled, but I'm afraid that I couldn't have done much about it at the time."

Tony only felt disappointment and anger at the sight of the man, even though he should feel relieved that he was alive, instead of dead. But right now he only felt betrayed. And that contrasted rather starkly with the utter bewilderment and disbelief, as well as suspicion, coming from his soulmate.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

"This cannot be," Loki said, startled at the words coming out of his mouth unbidden. Even though he had not intended to utter the phrase in a tone so transparently stupefied, it still conveyed the sentiment quite nicely. How could this mortal be alive? "I know I damaged your frail body too much to be repaired by your feeble medical practices. And I later felt your essence disappear from your body. It is what you might call the moment the soul escapes to Helheimr. How are you still alive?"

All eyes were on Agent Phil Coulson, and those who had only showed joy and relief before started to show hints of suspicion. In a way, Loki felt a tiny hint of gladness that the Avengers, his former enemies, who had no reason to truly believe a word he said – they knew his 'title' of Trickster God after all – would believe him enough to turn against their former friend.

Coulson frowned. "Well, I suppose I might have died for a minute there. But S.H.I.E.L.D. patched me up quickly after that."

Loki snorted. That was not how the universe worked. One's soul, one's essence did not leave immediately after a body's death, remaining for a few minutes up to, sometimes, a few hours – which was why some might be brought back to life through varying means – but once the essence was gone, only very powerful – and often very dark – magic could pull a soul back from its resting place; and that wherever that resting place was. In the Nine Realms, Yggdrasil was the harbourer of souls, but in other places, other entities resided, some of which Loki had felt when visiting faraway planets. There had been an entity out there which horded the souls of its charges, which refused to lend its magical power to most, and when it let someone powerful enough – like Loki – take some of its power, it was unwilling, wild and foul tasting.

"They even gave me a day to recover in Tahiti." Coulson continued. "I'd have stayed longer if duty – AKA you people – didn't call. Anyway, I really recommend it if ever you feel like shit. Tahiti is a magical place."

Loki didn't know about that Tahiti, but the sceptical looks most of the Avengers were throwing at the Midgardian probably meant it was a known place on this planet and that they doubted it could heal the dead in any way. Loki had felt around the mortal's body with his magic since the moment he walked in, and even though, with his own core so low, he could not sense all the details, he could have sworn that the moment Coulson had talked about this Tahiti being magical, he felt a flash of foreign energy flash in the man's mind. It had come and gone so fast Loki was unsure if it had truly been there – he may have imagined it, as foreign magic crepitated around and in the Tower since the portal. But if the trace of magical energy had indeed come from the mortal's mind… It might mean it had been tempered with. And the trace was foreign, yes, but not entirely – Loki felt like he had met that kind of magic before, even though he could not remember where at the moment.

"I remain unconvinced," he declared, refusing to voice his hypothesis about foreign magic. No one would believe him anyway – that required much more trust than they had for him, as he was the only one who knew about magic. They could not fathom all the things – especially all the foul things – that could be done using it.

"As the one who tried to kill me, I can understand that you're sceptical, Mr Odinson—"

"Friggason."

"— but as you can see, I'm alive and well."

"I hate to have to agree with that guy," Barton said, arms crossed again, grimacing while he designated Loki with a jerk of his head, "but he's right. I've seen too much magical bullshit lately to just believe you came back from the dead without being replaced by your evil twin or something."

Coulson smiled. "I know how you feel. I can't say I like magic either. But I don't really know how to show I'm not my evil twin or whatever. Hmm, perhaps if I tell you something only I know? Supposing my evil twin wouldn't somehow have all my memories, of course." Coulson chuckled, but no one else in the room seemed to see the humour in that. "Do you want me to tell you something about Budapest, perhaps?"

The Black Widow intervened then. "You have clearance. Even if you weren't you, you would have been able to read the files."

"Indeed, Agent Romanoff. But I meant something about Budapest that isn't in any of the files – and that includes those you don't even know about."

"I've read all the files," Barton said, scowling. Coulson merely stared at him, and the archer's face filled with rage. "There are more? What the fuck is in there!"

"I'm sorry, Agent Barton, but you do not have clearance. However, I'm talking about something that wouldn't be in the files and that only I know about."

"What happened in Budapest?" Tony asked, curiosity expressed clearly in both his expression and his mind. "Should I ask J.A.R.V.I.S. to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D. and find out?"

The answer was unanimous and instantaneous, coming from three voices at once. "NO!"

"Don't you dare, Stark!" Barton seethed. "If you even think of trying, I'll murder you and your boyfriend in your sleep, I swear!"

"Okay, first off, I just thought of trying, otherwise I wouldn't have said it. So you really should say 'the next time you think of it'. Second, I don't have a boyfriend. He's just my soulmate. And third, I demand to be murdered in broad daylight, it's way classier."

"In that case, I demand not to be murdered at all," Loki said, glancing unhappily at his soulmate. He really did not need Tony of all people to make the others more hostile against them.

"Spoilsport," Tony mumbled.

"Shall we take this outside, then?" Coulson asked, speaking obviously to Barton and Romanoff alone. "Given what I know, you don't want me to say it in front of Stark."

"Now I want to know even more!"

Coulson's eyes sparkled with mirth. "Exactly."

Suddenly Loki had his soulmate hanging from his arm in an exaggerated manner. "Honeeeey! They're all mean to me!" From the corner of his eye, Loki saw Captain America roll his eyes and Doctor Banner's lip twitch. "Do something about it!"

Loki sighed very loudly. "Very well, dear, I will." He paused, everyone waiting for his next words. "Shut up, Tony."

While Tony gawked indignantly – and amusement was coming from the bond – Barton erupted in laughter while the others smiled and chuckled. "Hear, hear!" the archer added between two breaths, and Loki arched an eyebrow at him. It took the Midgardian only a second to realise that he was agreeing, again, with Loki, and he sobered immediately. "Yeah, let's take this outside," he directed at Coulson.

"Hey, wait a sec!" his soulmate said, serious once more. "What if he's some imposter with weird voodoo and he infects you with a magical virus without us seeing, and you become strange red-skinned drones?"

Even though the hypothesis itself was preposterous, the idea that this Coulson could do something to the two Avengers while out of sight was not, and it seemed like Romanoff agreed. "We'll stay here," she said in a tone that brokered no argument.

"A clever idea, fair Widow. I will observe the magical flux surrounding you just in case."

"How reassuring," Barton grumbled.

Coulson had had a small smile on his face during the whole conversation. "Shall we get this over with? I guess we'll do it the old-fashioned way." He walked closer to Barton and leaned in towards his ear, hands cupped to hide his lips and stop the sound from spreading. Barton jerked his head back.

"Wait, wait, wait!" He pointed at Loki again – really, what was it with that mortal and pointing at him? "How good is your hearing?"

Loki smirked. It seemed like Barton had remembered quite a lot from his time under the sceptre's mind-control enchantment. "It is good."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. You go to that corner, and we go to that one."

Loki rolled his eyes but complied, and went to lean against the wall on the other side of the room.

* * *

OMG Phil is back! XD I love Coulson, so I decided to speed up his 'recovery' and use him as the S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison ;) I hope you don't mind!

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	18. Chapter 18

Hiya there! Ready for 'meanwhile, in the corner?' XD (Never mind my blatantly false crazy Budapest Operation trivia :p)

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _"Wait, wait, wait!" He pointed at Loki again – really, what was it with that mortal and pointing at him? "How good is your hearing?"_

 _Loki smirked. It seemed like Barton had remembered quite a lot from his time under the sceptre's mind-control enchantment. "It is good."_

" _Yeah, that's what I thought. You go to that corner, and we go to that one."_

 _Loki rolled his eyes but complied, and went to lean against the wall on the other side of the room._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 18**

For some reason, Tony had followed him, and stood next to him, looking at the spies gathered on the opposite side. His motive became clear soon enough. "You think you can hear them from here?"

"Perhaps if you remain silent." Loki had no reason to listen in – he did not care what had happened at that Budapest – except it would obviously be good blackmail material against Barton if he needed it. He concentrated on feeling the magical flow at the other end of the kitchen area, and on listening. His soulmate's breathing was as loud as the curiosity and pent-up energy flowing though the bond, and he did his best to shut it out. Coulson had taken the same position as before, and Loki slightly cocked his head to turn his ear imperceptibly in their direction.

 _Mismatched pillowcases_ … _Lilac toilet paper_ … _Circle of Pain by Blind Myself_ … It made no sense to Loki, but Barton looked shocked, then outraged. "How the hell do you know that?"

"This is something only I – or we – know. Is this sufficient proof for now?" Coulson asked, tone and expression more serious than Loki had ever seen – and he had faced the man in battle. Barton grumble a positive reply. "All right, then! Is everybody ready to go?"

"I need a suit!" Tony said. "And more coffee!"

Coulson smiled, but it did not seem joyful in the least. "Of course you do. Anyone else need to get pimped up?"

"Well, Sir. Phil." When Rogers spoke, Coulson's eyes crinkled and sparkled. Interesting. "Perhaps we should all suit up?"

"Publicity stunt!" Tony said above the sound of the grinding coffee-machine.

"No! This isn't for publicity!"

"What a good idea, Captain! That way everybody knows that the Avengers care about the city, and are ready to help," Coulson agreed jovially.

"Exactly!" Rogers said, and Tony snorted. "Everyone, back here in five!" And the soldier walked out.

Tony came back towards Loki, sipping his beverage. "So, J.A.R.V.', which suit is ready enough for some heavy lifting?"

"That would be the Mark V, Sir."

"What? How come? Yesterday I used the half-repaired VI to bring windows up!"

"Indeed, however it has been dismantled and is awaiting further repairs, as per your instructions."

"Fuck. Okay. And VII won't work either." Tony sighed and looked at Loki. "Want to come with me to desecrate my Hall of Armour? Yes? Great." And without waiting for an answer, he walked towards the exit. As Loki did not especially like to stay here with people he did not trust in any way, he followed at a slow pace. Barton and Romanoff followed him out of the door. And in the elevator.

Tony looked surprised. "What are you two doing here? You've got, what? Two, three floors to go?"

"And you, what? Four?" Barton answered in the same tone.

"Nope! We're going to my workshop all the way in the basement." The doors of the elevator slowly closed.

Barton made a face. "Again? What are you doing in there? Snogging?"

Tony rolled his eyes and focused on Loki. "So, did you manage to hear what Coulson whispered?"

Barton's eyes widened. "What?"

Loki didn't even hesitate. "No," he answered.

Tony's eyebrows joined each other in the middle. "That's a—"

Loki yanked on the thread that linked them, and Tony gasped and took an involuntary step forward just as the doors opened. Romanoff got off without a glance backwards, but Barton remained, glaring. Loki faked surprise at Tony's reaction while he spelled out 'NO' in Morse code.

His soulmate smirked. "Well, that's a shame! I would have loved to hear Barton's big secret!" The archer eyed Tony for another moment, sceptical, but finally left the elevator, and the doors closed again. "So, what did you hear?"

"I won't tell you."

"Whaaaaaat!" the mortal gasped. "Why not? We're soulmates! We share everything, right? So spill!"

Tony scowled, and Loki could only smirk teasingly. "Even though this information is really useless, I shall keep it to myself. I won't share what I heard. This way I can use it as blackmail whenever I need. If you knew and were to use it before me, it might not work."

Tony's expression could almost be qualified as a pout. "Fine! I'll find my own dirt on Legolas!" The elevator stopped and revealed the workshop again.

"Legolas? I don't see the resemblance. Surely you don't mean to say Barton is as graceful as a Tolkienian elf?"

Tony snorted. "Hardly. I just mean he could as well be blond, and it's an easy reference to an archery nut."

"I still feel it is too much of a compliment."

"Maybe. Hey, wait! You read Lord of the Rings too?" Loki merely lifted an eyebrow. "How many books did you read in one afternoon?"

"I'm uncertain. Around fifty, perhaps."

Tony stopped in front of the showcased older armours protected by a very thick slab of glass, eyebrows nearing his hairline. "Wow! That's gotta be a world record! But then again, you don't qualify, being an alien and all that." He put his hand on the glass, and a blue light scanned it. "Take it in, J.A.R.V.'". One of the armours disappeared in the wall. He then went back to the entrance of the safe and opened it like earlier this morning. This time, Loki remained outside – the further away he stayed from the sceptre, the better he felt – and Tony came out with a suitcase bearing the same colours as the suit that had vanished. "All right, let's go back up." And they walked back towards the elevator.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Mark V in hand, they went up towards the main penthouse floor. Tony glanced at Loki, with his blue tee and grey sweatpants, and wondered if perhaps his soulmate wanted to 'suit up' as well. Though… Maybe not. That leather armour had probably not been washed anyway, and he probably didn't want to risk being recognised as the one who instigated the attack – even though not many people might know it in the end. Most of the action had been confined to S.H.I.E.L.D. facilities, Stuttgart and the Tower, so the media wouldn't be able to make the link. In New York, Loki might be able to pass as 'Thor's brother who came to help out'. He'd probably hate it, but it was better than the alternative.

When they arrived in the kitchen, everybody else was already there. Agent Coulson had a tablet in hand – an ugly, big S.H.I.E.L.D. thing – with a map of the damaged areas in the city, Stark Tower at the centre of it. Which almost gave the impression that Tony was somehow at fault. Pepper wasn't gonna like the bad publicity; she was probably gonna blame it on the fact he was Iron Man again. And that wasn't even why the tower had been chosen. It was because of the Arc reactor powering it – all right, which you might say was a consequence of him being Iron Man, but still.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. has been working non-stop to rid the streets of the Chitauri bodies and technology ever since the portal closed. Most of the gliders are gone, but the Leviathans – situated here, here and here – are more difficult to remove. It seems most of our technology cannot cut through whatever they're made of, so maybe you could take look, Stark," Agent said, glancing at him. His eyes continued past his right shoulder, finding Loki. "And perhaps our Asgardian expert could lend a hand as well. We've tried to keep the public out, but the perimeter," he made a circular motion over the map, "is too big to be able to keep them out. So today, inhabitants and owners are slowly being let inside the safer areas, and the media is of course slipping in as well. Civilian and military personnel are helping in the remaining areas. You will be paired up and spread out, and you'll rotate between areas so that you get a chance to help a little bit everywhere, so to speak."

 _And to get them as much media coverage as possible too_. It was so obvious, Tony wondered how Cap' could still not see it. "And why are we getting out there today, and not yesterday? Mandatory resting day? I didn't know it was in the contract. Oh, wait, I didn't sign any contracts! Does that mean I'm not getting the company health insurance?"

"Fury isn't the only one deciding S.H.I.E.L.D.'s actions, there is a Council. And the Council didn't want you on the streets before now. And you were on alien-sitting duty anyway. You still are, but as Loki stayed put yesterday, they're giving him the benefit of the doubt, or so I was told. Could be that Fury just told them to go, and I quote, 'fuck themselves'. That's probably the likeliest scenario." Agent handed out some earbuds. "Communication, just in case. If you're all ready to go, let's head down."

They all crammed themselves in the elevator for an uncomfortable ride down – not that the elevator was small in any way, Tony had chosen one of the biggest luxury elevators out there. A glassless road had been swept through the lobby, leading them towards three non-descript black cars.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. cars, really? How uncool!" Tony said.

"Do you ever stop whining, Stark?" Barton muttered from behind him.

"Not since the moment I could string two words together, Katniss!" Tony replied with a sunny smile.

"Your poor parents, they must have suffered so much."

Tony's smile turned supernova, even though it felt more like the edges of his mouth wanted to turn downwards with the strength of an all-encompassing black hole. "Nah, they were never there. The nanny, though. Nannies. They usually didn't stay long."

"No wonder."

Agent clapped in his hands. "All right, kids! I want some order now! Captain, Doctor Banner, if you'd be so kind as to take the first car. Agent Romanoff, if you could please keep an eye on Barton. Third car. Stark and… Friggason, was it? With me."

Agent slipped in the front seat, and Tony opened the rear door, gesturing at Loki to go in. He then had to shoo him over to the other side so that he could get in himself. He put the Mark V suitcase down at his feet with a sigh; the thing was damned heavy after a while. His arm was trembling, little aftershocks of the continuous effort. The car started and pulled away from the curb, zigzagging between pieces of debris.

Agent turned around in his seat. "This is Agent May. She's going to be your other babysitter today. She's not very talkative, though. I think it's a common characteristic of the 'dark and brooding'." His eyes went to Loki for half a second. "Don't try your usual flirting routine, Stark, she might try to cut your balls off."

"There will be nothing trying about it," May muttered from behind the wheel.

"I suppose that depends if I'm there or not," Loki answered smoothly, looking out of the tinted glass.

Agent cleared his throat. "Well, now that the introductions went as efficiently as expected… We're heading to the closest alien space-monster-ship. It collapsed a building before it was grounded, so it's difficult to get near it by car. We'll have to walk a block. I hope you're not getting to old for that, Stark." Agent smirked.

"Fuck you, Phil," Tony sneered in response. "Is it me or are you getting as sassy as your boss?"

"I think it's death. Gives you perspective. I'm in a 'I do whatever the hell I want' mood right now."

"They told his fiancée he was dead," May piped in. "So after the whole, 'no, sorry, my bad' speech, she broke it off."

"Yes, thank you, May," Agent said in a tone that made it clear he meant the opposite.

"Harsh," Tony commented. "I found out I had an alien soulmate on the opposite side of a battle, and then Pepper left. So I can relate."

"Still, I say she found out you'd lied to her about your job when that idiot from Relations called." May continued. "You should have done more than just fire the guy."

"Yes, _thank you_ , May. That will be enough about my love life for now."

"Just trying to help," she replied, and Tony could see her smirk reflected in the rear-view mirror.

The rest of the short ride was spent in silence. They parked in the middle of an avenue that was cut off by rubble, between a dozen or so S.H.I.E.L.D. cars and vans. While they got out, a helicopter passed not far above, the rumble of its engine and the whooshing of its blades almost deafening in the eerie silence. Tony hauled his suitcase out of the car, and trotted behind the others to join them, as they had walked ahead – the bastards.

"Darling! Can you hold this for me? It's heavy!" Loki eyed him, unperturbed – about to ignore him, Tony was sure – so he used his best puppy-dog eyes. With a sigh and a roll of his eyes, Loki held out his hand, and Tony put the handle of his Mark V case in it. "Thanks, babe! You're the best!" And he used his new freedom of movement to hop on the path ahead.

He didn't get far on his own; May was trailing him like a shadow. Or like a body-guard. If he asked she'd probably say she was there 'for his protection' or some bullshit like that. "You don't have to follow me so closely, you know. I won't get lost or anything."

She sneered. "If only. It's not as if I want to babysit you either. My orders are to make sure you don't do anything stupid. So I'm just standing close enough to whack you in the head if you do."

Wow! S.H.I.E.L.D. women were always so charming! It was like the only people joining that organisation were either full of sass, brutes, or both. Unless those were the only kind they sent Tony's way, just to annoy him. He wouldn't put it past Fury – or past Agent, for that matter.

Soon enough, they went around the corner of the skeleton of a building to find that of an alien monstrosity. The Leviathan was on its side, spread out on the road, the rubble of the building it had flown through piled up next to it and covering its tail. The mouth had been pried open with a crane, and people were milling around and inside it, covered in white plastic overalls. Faint drilling noises could be heard, as well as some beeping noises from a device or other. As they approached the stench of dead fish became nauseatingly strong.

Tony stopped at a still breathable distance. "I'm guessing you've been at it from both the outside and inside. I kind of know how to kill one of these things, but that doesn't mean I can help you cut one up. What have you tried so far?"

Agent placed himself right next to Tony. "All types of cutting and excavating tools of the strongest materials – we even tried using diamonds, adamantium and vibranium – lasers, C-4 in varying and dangerous quantities, we tried pulling it apart… We tried about everything short of nuclear, I think."

"Except the Hulk."

"I'll let you ask Doctor Banner, then."

"Right. No thanks. I can shoot stuff at it if you want, but my portable suit is just an emergency one, so it doesn't have the strong stuff. You've tried melting it? It looks kind of metal-y."

"We did. We barely made a dent."

"Have you tried hotter?"

If Tony wasn't mistaken, Agent was barely containing his exasperation. "We've got something on the way for that."

"Something? Does that mean it's a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. thing? You sure you don't want to ask me for a Stark one? I have a lot of nice tech, I'm sure I can find 'something' better than your 'something'."

This time Agent did roll his eyes. "No thanks, Stark. We don't need to inflate your ego even more. I'm kinda hoping you won't find a way to cut this thing to pieces either. That way I won't have to suffer your smug smile while you lord your ingenious solution over me."

"That's not a very nice way to ask people for help, Agent."

"It's Deputy Director now, actually."

"What?" Tony gasped theatrically. "What about your name? That is very impractical!"

The man's eye's glinted. "Why? I think Deputy Director Agent Coulson sounds good."

"Tsk." 'Agent' was ruining his 'annoying nickname' gig. "You're no fun, Phil."

"I hear that a lot."

"No, you don't," May muttered from Tony's other side.

The horrible smell was brought to them again in the next gust of wind, and Tony crinkled his nose. Time to get back to business. "Did you try freezing it?"

"Freezing? Whatever for?"

"Well, you know, you might be able to shatter it on impact. If you manage to get it cold enough. Maybe."

May snorted. "Right. Brilliant idea. I'll let you grab the ice cubes then."

"I'm just saying we have an expert on freezing shit when he doesn't want it to. So maybe he can find a way to do it in a controlled way?" Tony had leaned back to look past Coulson – no fun calling him 'Agent' now that he didn't mind the name – and looked at Loki. His soulmate was scowling at the Leviathan, arms crossed and a forbidding look in his eye.

"No."

"Aw, come on! You haven't even tried! I'll let you change back with my magical energy and shit. Unless this has to do with your mana reserve not healing correctly if you do or something."

The answer was long in coming. "My magical core. Yes." Tony narrowed his eyes. Something felt wrong here. Not an outright lie, but something similar – the feeling was muted but still there. Tony's question had been indirect – would using the freezing spell thing make the recovery of his magical core worse? – and Loki's answer had been more indirect still, but Tony's interpretation of 'yes, it would' felt like it was not really true.

"I have the impression that that's a lie, somehow." He threw a glance at Coulson and looked back at Loki. He had phrased his answer in a way that didn't show his 'lie-detector' capacity, but if Loki continued like that he would just say it outright. (Though Coulson probably already knew. He had two spies in the Tower anyway.)

"Fine! It should not impact my magical core much because it is a racial spell, which does not use the core so much as it does every single cell of the body. That is why every Jötunn can use the spell, even if they are not versed in magic," Loki explained, teeth clenched.

"Great! So you can give it a try."

"I was merely explicating. Not agreeing to this farce."

"You have a better idea, then?"

"Several."

"And you know with certainty that freezing the thing won't help one bit."

"Yes." Tony stared meaningfully. "No," Loki amended with the inkling of a growl.

"Could you then help clean up the mess you partially made?" Loki glared at him. "Please?" Tony tried, but Loki's face and feelings were still entirely opposed to this idea. The alien's eyes flickered an instant to one of the scientists that was pushing a cart full of material past them, and Tony realised something. "What if everybody took an early lunch break? Well, everybody except our tour guides." Some of the strain in the mind bond relaxed just slightly, and Tony knew he'd hit the jackpot.

"Perhaps…"

"Awesome! You heard him, Phil! If you want us to help, you gotta get rid of your people. It's not as if they were making much progress anyway."

"Really, Stark, you can't expect me to—"

"Those are my terms, Philly. Take it or leave it."

Coulson eyed him for a moment, and he must have read Tony's determination in his face – or he must have remembered his stubbornness – because his hand went to his earpiece. "Everybody take thirty." The whole site and its ant-like activity froze, and every single person he could see within the block started making their way towards the perimeter of the crash-site. Soon enough, the four of them were the only living beings within half a block.

"Now what, Stark?"

"Darling, if you would be so kind?"

Loki's eyes were throwing daggers at him – mean, jagged ones coated with poison which disappeared from view when his eyes closed – and yet, Tony could still feel them pointed at him in the anger that pierced him through the bond. Loki huffed through his nose and clenched his fists, and everything was silent for a while. Loki was obviously struggling with the transformation, possibly because he wasn't used to going at it from this angle – Tony doubted his soulmate had ever tried to voluntarily put his Jötunn skin _on_. Nothing happened, and through the mounting anger Tony could discern the beginning of a sense of futility, and he felt compelled for some reason to step closer and grab Loki's wrist.

The reaction was instantaneous. Loki's eyes flew open, a silent 'o' on his lips, and Tony felt his whole body prickle. Their 'thread' had become a 'cable' again, which brought a slight sense of relief, and power and recognition flowed through them at light speed. In Tony's hand, skin chittering with energy rippled, changing texture and temperature, and in the next blink Loki had gone from porcelain to that unique colour that Tony had dubbed 'Jötunn blue'. Loki's exhale was a staccato of breath and his ruby eyes were wide open from the aftershock.

Tony slowly let go, fingertips lingering for half a second. "Okay. That was fast. Was that too fast?" Loki's look obviously spelled 'unimpressed'. "Is that your 'No shit, Sherlock!' look?" The raised eyebrow _screamed_ 'unimpressed'. "Does that mean your read Conan Doyle? Is that your 'if that's all you have to say just shut up' look? 'Cause you should know by now that it won't work on me. And I'm sorry if your… transformation was too fast, but I can't say I was expecting that to happen. I don't even know what I did. Or why. I just felt like touching you was the thing to do. I won't do it next time. Unless it actually helped, and it was just too sudden. Then I'll gladly touch you again. Wait, that came out wrong. Feel free to tell me to shut up."

"Shut up."

"Thank you. Now, how about you try to freeze the larva-snake-ship thing. It's why you turned blue after all." Loki pursed his lips and scrunched his nose while he approached the Leviathan – if his hearing was as good as it was, his other senses probably were enhanced as well. Tony was glad to be as far away from that stench as he was, so he was kind of sorry for Loki right now.

Meanwhile, he activated the Mark V Loki had left on the ground, and when the faceplate slid into place and J.A.R.V.I.S. joined him as the lights blinked on, he took a deep breath of odourless filtered air and smiled. Next to him the suit's microphones picked up the hush conversation that included the words "what the hell" and "adopted", so Tony decided to walk towards Loki instead.

"Sir, please do not try to use the repulsors; I need to adjust their controlling system to the stronger power source of your new Arc reactor," J.A.R.V.I.S. informed him.

"Roger that." This suit was kind of a relic after all – it had been made with a palladium Arc reactor in mind. It was already half a miracle that the whole thing wasn't short-circuiting on him – but then again, this was Stark tech, so it wasn't really a miracle either.

Loki stood stock-still, a hand placed on the outer hull-skin of the Leviathan, eyes tightly shut in concentration. He didn't move for quite a while, so Tony scanned the area – and Loki while he was at it, who knew what he could learn about Frost Giant physiology – and poked the teeth of the beast with his foot. This was taking too long.

"Need any help? As in skin contact? 'Cause that is about the only thing I can do."

"How about you shut up and let me concentrate?" Loki mumbled, eyes still closed.

"Yep. Sure thing. If you need me just call. I'll be right here."

One eyelid lifted, revealing a red orb fixated on his faceplate. "Can you even shut up?"

"I've wondered that myself."

A growl left Loki's throat, and it would have sounded rather menacing if Tony hadn't felt the exasperation that accompanied it. "Is J.A.R.V.I.S. controlling your armour?"

"He's helping me control it, yes."

"J.A.R.V.I.S., can you silence him for five minutes?"

"Of course, Mr Friggason."

"Hey!" Tony protested, but the sound remained stuck inside the suit. "J.A.R.V.I.S., you traitor! I can't believe you listened to him! I made you! I'm your Dad! Shouldn't you listen to _me_ first?"

"If you are my father, and Mr Friggason is your soulmate, does that make him my new, adoptive parent?"

"What? No! You two together would be a menace! Don't let him influence you! And don't influence him!"

"Ah, I'm afraid that your warning comes too late, Sir. I've already accepted Mr Friggason as my new 'daddy'. And I've always dreamed of the opportunity to 'silence' you." J.A.R.V.I.S. sounded oh-so-smug, and Tony was having an apoplexy while stuck in the Mark V. What had his cute baby A.I. become? Was this the rebellious stage of adolescence? How did parents survive this without drowning themselves in alcohol? An Irish coffee would be nice right about now.

Under Loki's hand, frost started to appear, slowly spreading on the surface of the beast. Soon fumes of water started to rise, disappearing quickly in the sunlight that was beating down on them. The ice creaked, and on Tony's scanners the temperature was going down drastically, up until minus three hundred degrees Fahrenheit under Loki's hand, and slowly getting even colder. Tony ventured inside the 'mouth' part to check the temperature inside, and frost was forming there as well.

When he came out again, Loki had stepped back, and one side of the Leviathan's head was smoking with cold. "I'll shoot some stuff at it, so you all better take a step back." The arsenal on this suit wasn't that great, but if there was a dent to be made, it should be enough for that at least. J.A.R.V.I.S. prepared all the missiles and ballistics he had, and he shot them all at the same time. The blast it made, hidden it the flaming misty cloud, forced Coulson and May to shield their faces with an arm, and when the smoke cleared, a crack or two had appeared in the fuming hull.

Loki went back to the cheek of the beast and froze it again. Tony had used up most of his weapons in this attack, so he looked around at the materials S.H.I.E.L.D. had left lying around. He didn't register that Loki had walked further along the body of the Leviathan until he had disappeared from view inside of the beast-ship – probably through one of exits the Chitauri platoons had used. What he did see, however, was the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents drawing their weapons in a hurry.

"Drop it!" Coulson said warningly.

Loki lifted his hands in the air – but he didn't drop the Chitauri gun he had found.

* * *

Oh Loki, what are you doing? XD You're supposed to clear mess up, not make a new one :p

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	19. Chapter 19

I'm a bit late this weekend, but that's because I'm crazy busy at the moment! I hope I'll be able to continue posting as frequently as I did, but… We shall see how it goes. Anyway, have fun panicking alongside Tony ;)

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _"Drop it!" Coulson said warningly._

 _Loki lifted his hands in the air – but he didn't drop the Chitauri gun he had found._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 19**

Tony reacted instinctually. He activated his repulsors – not well calibrated, which meant he was thrust forth with way more force than expected – and flew towards his soulmate, barely managing not to barrel into him. His boots skidded on the gravel, and just before he stopped, he used his momentum and a little repulsor boost to turn around and face the guns trained on them, arms held wide in an attempt to stop them from shooting. A bullet clanked against his faceplate, and May's gun registered as hot on his infrared scanner.

"Are you crazy? Who the hell do you think you're shooting at?"

"Isn't it obvious? A dangerous criminal."

"No! You're shooting. At. My. Soulmate!" He turned his head half-way back, so that he could keep an eye on all crazies at the same time. "And you! What the fuck are _you_ doing?" Tony was glad his suit was hiding him from view, because he was sure he was trembling all over. Fear and panic had overwhelmed him when that bullet had whizzed towards him, and he was still breathing hard.

Loki quirked an eyebrow, red eyes looking at him with contempt. "Proving a point." And he shot the alien rifle he held loosely in one lifted arm that was directed at the head of the Leviathan. Two human bullets twanged against Tony's suit, while a huge section of the frozen cheek of the beast cracked and crumbled. When the smoke cleared, Loki added: "As you can see, energy weapons such as these are the most efficient, and when frozen the destruction is indeed more complete. In other words, you had the tool you needed since the beginning." Loki turned the weapon around and handed it to Tony, who took it over gingerly with his metal glove.

He stood frozen in place, blinking, before lifting his faceplate. "And you couldn't just have said all that so that we wouldn't get shot at?"

"Where is the fun in that? And either way, I was in no danger."

"Well unless you're bulletproof, you're only standing here unharmed because of _me_!" Tony said, seething.

"Exactly. You are here. Therefore I was in no danger." Tony's building rage deflated suddenly, and Loki obviously felt it because he smirked. Tony had been defeated in the battle of wills he didn't know they were having, and he felt at a loss. What had this been about? Scaring Tony just for shits and giggles? Or was it revenge for making him turn blue? Or was it some kind of test to evaluate Tony's capacity as a bodyguard? Or maybe even a test to see which side he would choose when Loki was armed and dangerous – which was silly, really. If Loki died, he died, so he didn't even have much of a choice. Anyway, with a guy as crazy as his soulmate, it could be all of the above, or even none.

Loki casually stepped around Tony, unarmed and unprotected, and went to inspect the crumbling section of the Leviathan's face. The agent's eyes and weapons followed his movement, so Tony strode purposefully – and hurriedly – towards them. If his path intercepted their line of fire, well. What could he say – it was one hundred percent his goal after all.

Tony thrust the Chitauri weapon at Phil the moment he was close enough. "What the hell, Phil! Why the fuck did you and your lady sidekick shoot at my soulmate?"

Coulson was calmly putting his revolver back in his holster while he hugged the alien rifle with the other arm. "Well, I can't speak for May, but I only shot because you were in the way, so no harm would be done."

"No harm? You scratched my paint! This is a relic! It belongs in a museum that has my name on it! I shouldn't have to repair bullet dents!"

"I've always wanted to shoot you, you know. You're a pain in the arse way too often. So I took the chance when I could. Can you blame me?" The man's face looked so innocent, it almost made the horrible things that were coming out of his mouth seem like an auditory illusion. "And of course I'd really like to shoot Loki too, he did kill me for no reason after all. So be glad I chose to shoot you instead." The sunny smile that followed really was something! No wonder he got promoted to Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.; he may not look like it from afar, but Coulson was definitely among the best bullshiters out there.

Tony closed his eyes for a second, debating if he wanted to continue arguing with such a professional arsehole, and decided against it. He turned to the other culprit. "And you, why did you shoot?" he sighed, exasperated.

"I told you, a dangerous alien criminal was holding a dangerous gun. And anyway, it was only going to graze him. It was a warning shot," May explained levelly.

"Then why did you shoot twice?"

" _He_ shot the alien gun. And you were in the way. So I gave _you_ a warning shot."

"In the chest."

"On your armour."

This time, Tony could only bring his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose – with his gauntlet still on like an idiot, ouch! And anyway, who the hell was babysitting who here? Of course, he knew he couldn't count on Loki on that front because the guy could be an inconsiderate jerk – but really, why couldn't the millennia old guy be the mature one, for once? Why did Tony have to be the only rational person within the block?

Something hit his armoured shoulder hard enough to make him wobble in the suit, and his head whipped around in that direction. Again, he hadn't been paying attention to presence-locator-GPS side of the bond, and Loki had gone somewhere unexpected; this time it was him standing really close, their shoulders – or rather, Loki's shoulder and Tony's armour – brushing.

"Give a guy a warning, will ya? No need to try and knock me over!"

From the corner of his eye, Tony could see May had tensed again, hand held over her holster, no doubt. Coulson, though, looked relaxed – well, as relaxed as someone could look while hugging an alien gun, that is. Tony concentrated back on Loki in time to see a blue-coloured finger poke his upper arm, and he went with the movement; what if he didn't, and his poor, rather thin Mark V ended up dented?

"Get out of that ridiculous suit—"

" _Whaaaaat_? How dare you call my baby ridiculous? Sure, it's a bit old and not really up to par, but none of my suits have ever been ridiculous! Even the Mark I looked cool, for something built in a cave!"

Loki patiently waited for the end of his diatribe before continuing. "I want to change back, and you don't need to stay in your 'cool'-looking slightly old master piece."

It took Tony a second to close his mouth and get over the fact that Loki had let him win this argument so easily, but then again, it was the quickest way to get what he wanted; this type of flattery, even if Tony knew it was false – or rather, not false, as there seemed to be no lie, but it certainly wasn't heartfelt – still worked when it came to praising Tony's achievements, and it seemed Loki had understood that all too well. The smirk might not be visible on his soulmate's face, but Tony could feel the satisfaction smugly trickling into his mind while the Mark V peeled itself off.

The moment his hand was free, it was met by a larger, colder one, and Tony looked down at it. It was strange to think that so few people had ever held his hand like that – like little kids, like a parent and child, like a couple – and now it seemed that soon, very soon, Loki of all people would be the one who had held his hand the most. And for them it was more like… business. A way to make their stupid soul bond happy.

That blue colour was so striking against his own skin. It should have looked weird; he wasn't living in a sci-fi movie after all. But those long fingers and rather sharp-looking black nails that curled around the back of his hand seemed… normal, somehow. The feel of the cold-yet-strangely-not-cold soft leathery skin wasn't that bad either. He wondered for a second if that skin was as resistant as it looked – perhaps he could persuade Loki to agree to some tests sometime.

The tingling began then, starting at the centre of his palm and moving upwards, along the steel cable of their soul link, creeping quicker and quicker towards his torso, and making a bee-line for his heart. Tony reflexively squeezed Loki's hand, heartbeat picking up – he had never felt this weird thing before! Did it have to do with _magic_? He didn't feel it before, how come he could feel it now?

Loki stepped in front of him them, facing him, standing a bit too close, and the other hand was laid gently, almost soothingly over the cloth-covered Arc reactor. Tony stared at it for a moment, but when Loki spoke he met the pair of blood-red eyes, fascinated all over again by the giant irises that left no place for any white – or any other colour – and that should have looked animalistically frightening, but which could only be described as looking at him kindly.

"It's all right. Breathe. Don't be so tense, simply let it flow." Tony didn't know what 'it' was, or how he was making it 'not flow'. "Don't concentrate on it. Try to think of something else." Usually, trying to 'not think' about something was difficult, but the perfect distraction was only a dozen inches away this time: Loki's face.

The alien face, all Jötunn blue – light Jötunn blue for most of it, and dark Jötunn blue for the elongated squircles that traced straight lines on chin and cheeks, and half circles on his forehead – was fascinating enough to captivate his attention thoroughly. Lids were hiding the ruby-coloured eyes now, but in the full sunlight, the faintly bluish-tinted dark eyelashes that fluttered slightly were interesting enough to observe.

Loki's indigo-ish lips parted just enough to glimpse sharp-looking incisors and very pointy canines – they were a tad long, almost vampire-like – and while Tony watched they started shrinking, becoming duller, until they reached a human-like, or Áss-like, appearance. The blue colour receded, bleeding out from the centre of his face towards the sides, creeping down the neck, and smoothing out the ridges as it went. On a last chilly exhale that greeted Tony's brow, Loki's eyes opened on that mesmerizing green that Tony knew he shouldn't look at, otherwise he'd be lost.

His gaze remained focused on the lips, now an appealing pink, that he'd concentrated on before – and maybe that wasn't such a good idea. The only time someone looked so intensely at someone else's lips was when: A, they were trying to understand what the fuck that stranger with a weird accent was saying or, B, they'd really like to know what those deliciously soft-looking lips tasted like. And right now, neither of those situations applied, A, because Loki wasn't speaking, and B, because… well, because.

Before he could look away, Loki's jaw clenched and he stepped back to his previous position on Tony's right, leaving his gaze focused on nothing, staring at the damaged buildings somewhere above Coulson's head. The agent and his soulmate started up a conversation, but Tony didn't listen; he was blinking at the cityscape, intensely aware of the almost warm hand still holding onto his, and his feelings a heap of turmoiled confusion. On Loki's side the bond was firmly clamped shut, and even through their physical contact Tony couldn't discern anything precise. He wished he could do the same right now. Because the only thing he could think about – and really, what the fuck was he doing? – were those lips that he wouldn't have minded looking at for a few hours or more.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

It took Loki a moment to realise that Coulson – the man who could not possibly be standing here without the use of forbidden and dangerous practises – was speaking to him. Firstly, because he had barely gone through a reluctant shapeshifting for the fourth time today, and it was starting to take its toll, but also because he had been standing close enough to Tony for his smell to overwhelm him, and the gaze directed at his lips had been almost too much for him to bear; it took all his willpower to step back instead of leaning forward and tasting his soulmate for the first time.

This was all getting out of hand. He really needed to control himself, and his feelings, better. Instead, he was still shamelessly holding onto Tony's hand even though it was not needed anymore, and he certainly wouldn't be the first one to let go. How pathetically weak of him. Therefore, it took some time to register Coulson's question.

"How do you fire this thing? I've had scientists pour over it for hours, but they still didn't manage to even make it power up."

"Skin contact is necessary. The touch of a magical signature makes it possible to fire. That way these weapons can be safely stored without the risk of one of them shooting a hole in the hull of your ship."

Coulson looked disappointed. "Oh. Too bad, I would have really liked to shoot one of these babies."

Loki rolled his eyes. The ignorance of these people! "Of course you can use it. Everyone has a magical signature. Most of you may barely have enough magic for your magical core to manifest itself, but that does not mean you do not have magic." All three Midgardians – it seemed Tony had overcome whatever emotional mishmash he had been struggling with – were looking at him with surprise clearly written in all their features, and Loki sighed. "All three of you have magic. Obviously. Tony's is the most developed, but I believe it is due to his Arc reactor's influence, and not because of some natural talent." He looked straight at Coulson. "Your core is… visible enough." It was even rather strange, like water that used to be clear but that now looked somewhat troubled. He met May's suspicious glance next. "Your core is barely there. And yet, you can all use this gun in equal measure, because the strength of our magic is of no consequence."

"I'm definitely trying that out!" Coulson said before walking towards the Leviathan and discharging a loud salvo of bright energy shots at its face.

Now both alone with only the Midgardian woman, the conversation ceased. An opposing mixture of discomfort and ease was coming from Tony, and Loki was unsure of what it meant; he definitely did not want to fool himself by imagining that the ease came from their still joined hands. To distract himself from that thought, Loki focused on the magical flow surrounding them – and it seemed that even though his core was low on reserves, he could 'feel' the world around him in a particularly wide circle today. It was only when May insistently looked down at their hands with a raised eyebrow, and when Tony hastily removed his from Loki's grasp in response, that he realised why. When touching, their bond connected their cores – they shared the same magical signature after all – and Loki had unconsciously accessed Tony's (un)awareness of the world alongside his own, doubling his current 'sensing' perimeter.

This double range, and double strength, also made him painfully aware of what he had been able to feel before and did not anymore; tiny specks of 'light' – the magic, life and soul that represented a being – had disappeared from his senses. On places where there should not have been any to begin with.

"Give me back your hand," he said somewhat urgently, and he could see Tony's protest ready to form on his lips. "Just do it!" he added, moving his own hand towards his soulmate. Tony met him halfway even though bewilderment sang along the bond, and the instant they connected Loki focused on the spot he had sensed what should not be. And yet, it was.

"There are people," he said, turning towards the source. He pointed in their general direction, and the two others followed his movement with their eyes. "I can feel them."

Tony took a startled step back, letting go in the process, and Loki's awareness faded again. "Wait! No! Holy _shit_! Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"I thought that statement was rather clear."

"You can feel people – since when?" Tony seemed confused, and shook his head vehemently as if to clear it. "That's not the point. You can feel people _under the rubble_? _Alive_?"

"Yes. If they were dead, I would not be able to feel their presence."

" _Phil_!" May called in an uncharacteristically uncontrolled voice, with two fingers on her ear, and stalked away.

Tony passed both hands through his hair in agitation, and paced a few steps to and fro, turning on himself a few times and looking around, lost. Then he stopped, eyes on the gigantic pile of debris that had previously been a building, and that Loki had previously designated. "How many?" he said in a low voice.

"From here I could sense three, close together."

"Oka— Wait. Could?"

"The soul bond enhances my magical awareness, it seems."

Tony remained motionless for a moment, head turned towards him, before stepping closer and grasping his palm, warm fingers squeezing the flesh, connecting them half-soul to half-soul once more – becoming, in essence, one. A small cluster of tiny lights – presences – appeared where he had felt them before, weak and flickering.

"Can you feel them now?" Loki nodded once. "And you can pinpoint an exact location?"

"I won't know unless I am closer, but I believe I can give accurate enough directions."

"Okay, I'll put my suit back on, and we'll try to dig them out," his soulmate said, the previous panic ebbing away, replaced by determination and worry. They separated again.

While Tony stepped back into his collapsed armour, the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had arrived, speaking urgently to each other, and into the small communication devices. Loki ignored them until Tony walked back to him, suit whirring, with his head and right hand bared, palm held up. Loki accepted the clear invitation and put his own hand on top, reconnecting their identical magic, and letting him 'see' clearly again.

"So, you're saying you can feel survivors with… magic?" Coulson asked with a tone that simply seemed to ask for confirmation – as if it did not surprise him in the least. Perhaps the mortal had seen enough of the world to understand that infinitely more things than he could imagine were possible.

"Indeed."

"And you can help us save them?"

"That depends." May's eyes narrowed, but Coulson's expression did not change. "I cannot use magic to help; otherwise I might have been able to transport them here in an instant. I only have my magical awareness and physical strength to dig them out."

"That will have to do then. Let's go."

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent gestured for him to lead the way, and hand in hand with Tony, Loki walked in the direction of the buried Midgardians. The stench of the dead Leviathan made him wrinkle in nose as they went passed, moving towards the tail and the rubble of the building the organic ship had collapsed. His steps faltered as the range of his senses moved.

"I can feel another one. Alone. On the far end," he said, gesturing to where the gigantic pile was somewhat thinner. Noise was starting to come from all around them as people assembled near the crash-site again, and strange-looking vehicles pushed a new path among the debris.

"Is the access to that one easier than the others you can see?" Coulson asked.

"I believe so."

"Then you will show us the location, and let us humans handle that one, and then we will go to those you found first. We'll see how we get them out when we get there."

Loki acquiesced – it did not matter where they started to him. He had never really been in the business of saving lives, except that of Thor and his stupid friends when they didn't listen to his plans, so if Coulson wanted to choose the order of events, it was all the same to him. Saving fragile mortals who would die in a few decades anyway was not the kind of thing he had ever imagined doing, but as all this destruction was partly his fault – he had let Thanos poison his mind and take away his sanity and freedom – and as his soulmate was a mortal as well – a mortal hero in the business of saving lives to boot – it was only logical that he helped as well. He would be doing good, and his doing good would be acknowledged; that might actually be a first in all the millennia he had lived.

As they advanced, Tony shifted his palm's position, pushing his fingers between Loki's and interlacing them, squeezing, as if wanting to mould their hands together so that their connection would never break. Loki held on tightly in reflex – or rather, as tightly as mortal hands could bear – and he felt some tenseness leave his body. He could get used to this; more physical contact with someone. And of course, they had to touch at night, so he would indeed be touching Tony more often than he had ever touched anyone else, except perhaps his mother. However, he should not get used to this: Tony holding onto him tightly in broad daylight, both reaping comfort from the gesture. It was only due to this unfortunate situation after all.

* * *

Time to save some mortals next time ;)

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	20. Chapter 20

Sorry, I'm a bit late again – but it's still Sunday in my time zone :p Hope you like this chapter :)

 **Important:** NO UPDATE NEXT WEEKEND! I'll be moving to another country! (OMG I'm moving next week! *runs around, screaming inside*). So, I won't have time to write – okay, maybe a tiny bit on the plane – and I won't be able to update. I might not even be able to update the weekend after that, because I might not have any internet access, so… Sorry if you're disappointed – of course you are, I'd be too ;) – but that's life!

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _As they advanced, Tony shifted his palm's position, pushing his fingers between Loki's and interlacing them, squeezing, as if wanting to mould their hands together so that their connection would never break. Loki held on tightly in reflex – or rather, as tightly as mortal hands could bear – and he felt some tenseness leave his body. He could get used to this; more physical contact with someone. And of course, they had to touch at night, so he would indeed be touching Tony more often than he had ever touched anyone else, except perhaps his mother. However, he should not get used to this: Tony holding onto him tightly in broad daylight, both reaping comfort from the gesture. It was only due to this unfortunate situation after all._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 20**

Loki stopped and turned towards the rubble pile they had been walking around. It was just over fifteen feet tall here, gradually descending in height until only a few cement boulders and some twisted metal met his shoes in the heavy grey dust. A whole group of people had assembled behind him, chattering nonsense into their phones, holding up strange equipment or, like Coulson, waiting patiently in silence. Loki closed his eyes for a second, concentrating again.

He pointed in the exact direction of the 'light'. "I would say… Tony, can you remind be of the exact measurement of a 'foot'?" His soulmate looked startled for a fraction of a second, before he became serious once more and held up their joined hands. Instead of letting go, he simply straightened his fingers, and placed his other, gauntlet-covered hand at a specific distance – perhaps guided by the very knowledgeable J.A.R.V.I.S.. Loki memorised the measurement; in his previous visualisation of a 'foot' from the 'inch' J.A.R.V.I.S. had shown him, he had indeed not been precise enough.

He closed his eyes, put his finger once again in the exact direction of the presence, and visualised the distance. "I would say, about 76.7 feet from here."

"Would that be from your finger on, Sir?" some unknown voice said from his right, and Loki opened his eyes to glance at the white-clad woman scribbling on a wrinkled piece of paper.

"From my heart to their heart."

Some commotion ensued, and soon a small technological device was held in front of his face by the eager-looking white-clad woman. "Can you place this laser against your heart – well, against your chest above your heart, of course – and point in the right direction?" Loki looked at the thing for an instant before gingerly taking it between two fingers. He turned it this way and that, observing the small cylindrical device. There was a button on the side of it, and he pressed it. Red light shot forth, a thin beam that went straight up towards the sky.

Next to him, Tony sighed. "Hey lady, are you really asking him to do this with a _red_ laser on a clear sunny day?"

"It's doctor, not 'lady', Mr Stark," the woman answered.

"Jemma!" another mortal protested – a dishevelled-looking man all clad in white too (most of the Midgardians standing there were).

Loki listened distractedly to the meaningless conversation while moving the 'laser' this way and that, writing ephemeral words on the building still standing opposite them – it would be too far for the mortals to see, but Loki could distinguish the runes just fine.

"Well, _Miss_ , then I'm 'doctor' to you too. And that doesn't answer my question."

" _Mister_ Stark, it is the only laser that seems to be on hand. And I just thought that, Mister Loki being Asgardian and all, he might be able to point it in the right direction regardless. Don't Asgardians claim to be gods?"

"We only called ourselves 'gods' because others, such as you mortals, worshipped us as such. I believe it went to our ancestor's heads." Tony snorted, and Loki smirked. Indeed, he may as well be truthful with himself; he was considering himself – possibly wrongly, when people like his soulmate were concerned – vastly superior to all the assembled. "Either way, if it is this straight line of red light that you call 'laser', then I can indeed see it."

"You can?" Tony asked, his voice full of doubt but the bond full of awe.

"Am I to assume that none of you can?"

"Nope. We can't see this wavelength with the naked eye with so much ambient light and no scattering particles."

"Hmm. Then what use could me pointing at the mortal survivor be if you cannot see it?"

"Because we have machines that can," the woman interjected.

"Very well." Loki placed the device over his heart, concentrated again on the 'light' he could feel, and let the 'laser' form a straight line between them.

"Fitz, can you place your little drone pet where he's pointing?" the woman exclaimed excitedly, scribbling some more on her paper.

"Grumpy is not a _pet_ , Jemma! Stop calling him that!" the dishevelled man grumbled as he fished a small machine out of a suitcase. He fiddled with it, and it flew a few feet up and stopped, hovering. The man then moved his finger on something that looked like a small 'tablet' device, and the flying 'Grumpy' went directly towards where the laser was pointing.

"You sure you know where your heart is?" May asked all of a sudden, eyeing Loki's hand where it was placed an inch or two below his clavicles.

"Ah, yes. I should have been more precise. The distance is from my magical core to their magical core. My magical core is placed in the same position as my heart would be in my… true skin."

"I really need to perform a few scans soon," Tony muttered in a voice so low that Loki doubted anyone else had heard.

"58.6," the dishevelled man – the so-called 'Fitz' – announced. "So the survivor must be at about 18.1 feet inwards, at a 29.9 degree upwards angle. I'll send the other dwarfs to scan the area and look for the best point of entry. It's a matter of access and structural integrity, so if we…"

Loki stopped listening then, while Fitz rattled on about the procedure at a decreasing volume, speaking to himself, and the Jemma woman jabbered about the machines they would need. Coulson put them in charge of the situation – that, at least, made the woman falter while she protested about the responsibility, flustered – and Loki deliberately stepped away after having handed the laser to the closest S.H.I.E.L.D. person. With Tony still holding onto him tightly, he made his way through the throng, closely followed by a frowning Agent May.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Tony trailed slightly behind his soulmate, holding tightly onto that warming hand, gut clenching painfully at the thought of all the lives that were lost. If only he had been able to help more. Thor and Hulk had managed to down one of the Leviathans, and the other two had fallen from the sky when the mothership was destroyed, but… He should have been able to do something, to do more! What, he didn't know, but _something_!

While he had been dealing with Loki who had just been wrenched away from the clutches of Thanos' control, and then with flying a nuke into outer space, he hadn't been defending the defenceless New Yorkers, and this was the result. Numerous destroyed or partially destroyed buildings, victims – dead or alive – buried underneath… How many could he have saved if he had done _something more_? How many had died, not of the collapse itself, but of their wounds; the head injuries, the blood loss, the lack of air? Why hadn't they helped yesterday, when many more could have been saved?

Loki came to a stop, observing the almost forty feet high pile, and closed his eyes, forehead creased in concentration. May stopped next to Tony, seeming infuriatingly calm, making Tony's anger skyrocket. "Remind me why the hell you people are studying the alien tech instead of looking for survivors?"

"I've been told the debris has been scanned for life signs, but thermographic cameras, and whatever other gadgets they use, can only see so far. If there are people buried too deep, no way we can see them. And the quicker we get these alien ships out of here, the quicker this place can be opened to the civilian instances who can start digging. We don't have the resources to go through all that rubble. But if you can pinpoint people's location… That's another story I guess."

"Nice excuses you've got there. How many more people do you think we could have found if we'd been here _yesterday_ morning?" Tony growled.

"Under normal circumstances, how much would that have helped? We didn't know _he_ could do that…" she said, pointing at Loki. She sighed. "You can blame shitty bureaucracy. The higher-up always fear more for their reputation than that they care for the greater good. And that's true whatever the organisation. They probably think that letting the Avengers do all the heavy lifting is bad for their image or something." She paused. "And anyway, nothing stopped you from flying out here yesterday to try to help on your own."

"Well I thought your priority would be saving _people_ , not tech! So fuck you!"

"You're the one who made the aliens fall from the sky, destroying buildings like this one, so fuck you too!"

"Children!" Coulson chided. He had come up behind them silently enough for May and him not to notice and both flinched back at the reprimand. "Now is not the time to pick a fight. I thought we had survivors to find."

Tony huffed through his nose. No need to remind _him_. He turned towards Loki, squeezing his hand once to be sure he listened. Eyelids opened, even though the green irises remained unfocused, as if he was concentrated on something else. "Where are they?"

"They seem rather deep. Approximatively 162 feet from here."

"Right. Well, I guess we'll start by going above and scan the whole pile. Do you need to touch my hand or will any skin do?"

"The flow will not have the same strength depending on where the connexion is made." Loki looked at him then. "Why? What did you have in mind?"

"We're gonna fly. I'll need my hands for stability, but the helmet is not mandatory, J.A.R.V.I.S. can give the information from the scans verbally."

Loki's eyes lowered, locking on the section of throat that was visible, and Tony swallowed. Last time he'd had that hand there, he was half-suspended in the air and half-choking. It was different now, though. Now, he knew that even if that hand, probably strong enough to snap his neck in two, wrapped itself around his throat, nothing harmful would happen. Loki didn't look in a suicidal mood after all – and anyway, even if Loki became suddenly crazy and tried something, Tony could throw a repulsor blast in his face. That would be enough to dislodge him. Probably. Maybe. Whatever, that wasn't going to happen; they were soulmates. That was reason enough.

"Okay, so, er… You can touch my face or whatever with one hand, hold onto me with the other, and place your feet on my boots maybe. I should be able to get us up there without crashing."

"How reassuring." Loki stepped in front of him, closer, too close, and gently put a hand on the side of Tony's neck, wedging it halfway inside the suit, and the thumb touched the back of his ear. The touch felt awfully intimate, and when Loki plastered himself against his suit, he kind of felt like calling the whole thing off. He cleared his throat, trying to dispel the discomfort, and he heard Loki chuckle; of course the bastard would find this situation funny.

With his hands now both free, and both gloved again, Tony activated the replusors on two percent, gently lifting them off the ground. They hovered for an instant, and the arm Loki had wrapped around Tony's body – under his arm instead of over it, which wasn't really practical given the height difference – shifted slightly. "Hold on," he warned before upping the power, and they went higher. He oriented their flightpath forward, getting them closer to the rubble. They neared the top of the pile when Loki finally decided to give directions.

"Slightly to the left," he said, eyes closed again. Tony surmised his soulmate was clever enough to be talking about Tony's left instead of his, so he moved to the left. No contradictory order came, which meant he had been right. With no other instructions forthcoming, he continued advancing slowly, beyond the ridge that had been visible from the ground, going downwards a little bit again.

"Stop!" Loki said. Tony hovered in place. "Back a little bit. Stop. To the right. There! About 40.3 feet down."

Tony gently let them touch the rubble, a mixture of jagged concrete slabs and rocks, pieces of metal, the odd shard of wood or glass, and everything covered in heavy dust. "And now?"

"34.1 feet."

"Okay, you stay here. I'll let J.A.R.V.I.S. scan everything." Loki let go of him, and Tony made his helmet slide up again, faceplate clicking into place with a metallic twang. He took off, spiralling around the designated location in a widening circle, while his A.I. did all the real work.

"Scans complete, Sir," the posh British accent breathed in his ear. "The structural integrity of the scannable areas suggests that everything above Mr Friggason's level can be blasted away, after which digging can commence in a thirty feet radius until I can scan the area more deeply."

Tony flew over the eight feet ridge he needed to remove, and back down towards Coulson; him and May were not alone anymore, and an aggregation of S.H.I.E.L.D. members of all sorts were loudly discussing things among themselves. Tony upped his speakers before saying: "I'm gonna need you all to step way back, 'cause rubble's might come flying your way in the next few minutes. I wouldn't suggest loitering here."

Tony flew back up while Coulson ordered his people away. Loki had remained in the same spot, arms crossed, bond twitching in impatience. Tony ignored him and positioned himself at the best angle, before shooting repeatedly at the rubble with his repulsors; the charging whine of energy, the exploding hiss of its release, concrete clumps tumbling down the slope, and repeat. It took a few minutes to clear the area, and when he had finished, Tony returned to Loki through the misty haze of dust he'd created.

"You gonna be okay, breathing-wise? I'm sure I can find you a dust mask or something."

"I am fine like this," Loki said with a gaze that probably meant 'let's get on with it'.

"Suit yourself. You gonna do this bare-handed, or do you want gloves?"

"Why would I need gloves?" Loki sounded more and more exasperated.

"Because we humans would cut ourselves if we did this without them, and I don't know how strong your skin is, comparatively. I'd really like to run some tests later to find out, if you don't mind. So meanwhile, I'm applying human standards to you, unless proven otherwise."

Loki picked up a big slab of concrete as if it barely weighed anything – the bulging muscles that made the sleeves of his tee ride up slightly sure were impressive-looking – and threw it a fair distance away, making it roll down the slope. If such a thing was awesome when done by Thor, who looked like a cliché blond surfer on steroids, it was even more awesome when done by Loki, who, in comparison, looked like a beautifully built – but skinny – fashion model.

"Consider yourself 'proven otherwise'."

"Great! I still want to run tests, though." Tony's grin was huge behind the protection of his faceplate.

"Why am I not surprised," Loki said in a breath that Tony wouldn't have heard if the mics on his suit weren't way better than his own, human hearing.

They worked in silence, following J.A.R.V.I.S.'s directions, carefully dislodging stuck pieces and digging a wide crater in the debris pile. It wasn't as if they didn't have things they could talk about while they worked – Tony never lacked conversation subjects, even though his choice of subject often ended up being very one-sided – they simply did not need to talk. Whenever a piece of rubble was too heavy, or awfully stuck, the other came to help without a word, and they just kept on working.

It was boring, yes, and Tony wouldn't have minded talking even if all this moving had him kind of out of breath, but this silence was nice too. Usually, Tony hated silence, but this one was fine. It was probably one of those silences that people called 'companionable'. Tony certainly wasn't used to that. It didn't mean, of course, that the rest of the world was silent; machines were whirring, excavator buckets were making the concrete hiss and scream while it was scraped away, and people were yelling orders at each other in an indistinguishable garble of words. Around the Leviathan, blasts were going off and smoke was visible through the heavy dust that permeated the air.

They paused from time to time, for Tony to calm his aching lungs, and for Loki to discreetly cough – no need for a mask, huh? Tony would take off his glove then, so that Loki could touch him with his filthy and chafed hand to verify the location of their targets. It was during one of these breaks that the excavation machines in the distance fell silent, and not soon after, whoops and applause echoed between the mounds of debris.

"Looks like they found the lone survivor over there. Let's find ours." They continued digging while the sun started lowering westward after noon. Less than ten feet remained and they had slowed to a careful pace, wary of shifting rocks and only pulling out those J.A.R.V.I.S. designated, like a deadly game of Jenga. The A.I.'s scans could see them now, the three people still alive but unmoving, most likely a man and two women, probably unconscious.

Suddenly Loki hissed and jerked his hand back, a welt of red blooming on his palm. He swiped the blood away on the somewhat cleaner inside of his shirt and closed his eyes. While Tony looked on, the wound scabbed over even though it didn't completely heal – the lack of magic was probably why. Tony hadn't seen many scars on Loki's body before, which probably meant that in normal circumstances his healing capacity could make all traces disappear.

"I was wondering… Your Jötunn skin, is it tougher than this one?"

Loki took his sweet time before answering, which was an answer already. "Why would you think that?"

"It feels… stronger. Like, leatherier. It's only a hypothesis, of course. I'd need to run some tests."

Loki sighed. "Of course, you would. Well, it isn't stronger per say…"

"Uhuh. And why does my little bond tell me that's not entirely true?"

"It's… stronger against perforation. It is not against burns, for instance."

"Right, and you're risking a lot of burns while digging, I get it."

"I am _not_ shapeshifting again today! My Æsir form is the one I know best! And we're almost there anyhow."

As if those words had been a signal of the gods – real gods, not aliens – a small and precarious hole formed when Loki took out the next rock, connecting the cavity below with the open air. No one could be seen yet through the opening, but at least air would flow through. They worked very carefully until a hole wide enough to let one of them through was made.

On one side of the crater, Coulson and May – which J.A.R.V.I.S. had notified the moment they broke through – stood, accompanied by medic-looking people holding stretchers. Tony was lowered down into the low-ceiling cavity by Loki – he couldn't risk jumping or using his repulsors.

"J.A.R.V.', scan them and tell me if they can be moved without further injury."

Apart from a nasty compound fracture in the man's arm – someone had used a piece of cloth to stop the blood flow – and some less important broken or cracked bones, the three survivors seemed moveable enough. Tony wormed his way towards the closest in a mix of crawling and crouching – the suit really wasn't meant for this – and he gingerly picked up the woman and moved even slower backwards. Loki was outside the hole and helped him get her out. The medics had gotten closer, and Loki lowered the woman onto a portable stretcher before coming back.

"Okay, help me out of this hole, you're going down here. I can't move correctly with the suit, it's too cramped."

They exchanged places, and Tony was the one bringing the other woman and the man to the medics next. When everyone scrambled off the rubble pile, there was a mandatory round of applause from the assembly down below, while two military ambulances were loaded up and rushed off. Both Tony and Loki were congratulated on a job well done, receiving a number of pats on the back that Tony didn't mind – he was still wearing the Mark V – but that had Loki growing increasingly irritated, so much so that Tony was afraid he might lash out. He threw an arm over his soulmate's shoulder – the added height of the suit didn't make the position too awkward – and he looked meaningfully at Coulson.

"All right, people! Back to work!" the Deputy Director said after clapping in his hands to make them listen. The group slowly dispersed, not without a longing glance at Loki from the 'Jemma and Fitz' duo of scientists – thinking of all the experiments they'd like to do on 'the alien', no doubt.

"So, Phil. Where to next? I'm sure there are more collapsed buildings you haven't checked."

"We'll go to the other Leviathan sites first, then the rest."

Tony made the suit retract and picked up the suitcase with a shaky arm. God, he was hot and sweaty and tired, and they had barely started! Loki on the other hand looked fit as a fiddle – well, if it weren't for the scrapes and dust that covered him from head to toe. It made his skin dry and wrinkly around the eyes, and his hair was all greyish.

Tony smirked. "You're finally looking your real age, darling."

Loki passed a hand over his hair, trying to shake cement dust out of his braid. "And you don't need any filth to look yours, dear."

"Ouch! But you're right. I'm a poor old mortal and this suitcase is soooo heavy. Care to help a guy out?"

Loki rolled his eyes but took the Mark V anyway. Someone thrust bottles of water in their hands, and they were off to the car, ready to start the whole locate-and-dig-and-save-people job all over again. It was going to be a long yet fulfilling day.

* * *

Sure, all the dead people crushed by buildings ain't fun, but we saved a few! I call that a success XD And I couldn't stop myself from adding a few more Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. characters, just for a chapter - if you haven't seen it, it's not important ;)

See you in one or two weeks, we'll see :)

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	21. Chapter 21

Hey, will you look at that! I'm back! Though not really 'back' back I'm afraid. Life in this new town won't leave me as much time to write, so updates will be slower; I'll try every other weekend.

Anyway, Tony and Loki have finished digging, so hopefully things will be less depressing now! Or will it? :p

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _Tony smirked. "You're finally looking your real age, darling."_

 _Loki passed a hand over his hair, trying to shake cement dust out of his braid. "And you don't need any filth to look yours, dear."_

" _Ouch! But you're right. I'm a poor old mortal and this suitcase is soooo heavy. Care to help a guy out?"_

 _Loki rolled his eyes but took the Mark V anyway. Someone thrust bottles of water in their hands, and they were off to the car, ready to start the whole locate-and-dig-and-save-people job all over again. It was going to be a long yet fulfilling day._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 21**

Tony let himself fall into an armchair – contrary to his couches, his armchairs were plush and soft – and sank into it, feeling as if he would never be able to get up again. Every single muscle in his body was protesting the rough treatment they'd had today, and he felt like he would fall asleep on the spot if he wasn't as ravenous as he was. He blindly groped the side-table, too comfortable to lift his head, found the paper bag and grabbed the first thing inside. A cheeseburger. Yeah, that would do.

After the first Leviathan crash-site, they'd gone to the two others before touring all the destroyed buildings in the publicly accessible areas as well. Luckily, Captain America had been called in from the second crash-site on, so the heavy lifting they'd had to do had been easier than the first one. Still, even if Tony didn't really lift everything himself and the strength came from the suit, he was dead on his feet – nothing may have been all that heavy, but he'd moved all day, like a continuous workout session. Around 2 PM May had shoved a ham sandwich and a bottle of water in his face – the task she'd been given hadn't been to her taste, because she had looked awfully sour while doing it – and they'd worked until 8, practically non-stop. That explained why he was such a tired and hungry mess. But hey, they'd saved about forty people, that made all this worth it, right?

Loki was sitting on the couch opposite him, looking unseeingly at rest of the room behind Tony, and mindlessly munching on his own share of greasy fast-food things; three big paper bags worth. While Tony had merely been drenched in sweat, Loki had been exposed to all the dust of the collapsed buildings, and he looked more like a black and white version of himself – except for the emerald eyes that now stood out even more starkly. Tony did his best not to look at them too often.

At least it was only dust – the Cap' had managed to convince Loki to wear gloves and a dust-mask even though Loki, fashionista that he was, had protested for at least ten minutes. But Steve Rogers could be frightfully convincing, especially when he looked at you with his baby blues just so, and even the so-called Trickster God hadn't been able to resist. Anyway, with the dust and the gloves and the mask, the pictures must have been really classy. At least Tony looked as cool as ever, even dusty and in an old suit. Loki probably didn't know that those pushy people with cameras where members of the press, and that rather unflattering photos were going to be splattered over the newspapers tomorrow. Especially those of them holding hands, he was sure. The tabloids were going to have a field day, and Pepper would have his head.

But all that didn't matter. What mattered was that they'd saved lives, and that now they could, after their meal and a shower, crash head first on the bed and sleep for two days straight. Or, well, Tony at least. Loki would probably be completely fit, and bored, tomorrow. What he wouldn't give to have a bit of 'non-mortal' energy right now.

Tony had almost finished half of his food stack – Loki was swallowing whole what looked like his last French fries – when J.A.R.V.I.S. interrupted him mid-chew. "Sir, incoming call from Colonel Rhodes." That, at least, gave Tony the energy to sit up.

"Put him through."

" _Tony?_ "

"Hey Rodhey!"

" _I saw you on TV. Digging people out of the rubble. I saw the footage of you flying a missile through a hole in the sky too. Alien invasion, man! And you don't even call! Not that I'm surprised, but still. You could at least let me know if you're all right, you know_."

"Yeah, I know. Sorry. But, well, you're not the only one. I also forgot to call Pepper."

" _I know. She called_."

"Ah."

" _Yeah_." There was an awkward pause. " _I'm sorry, man. But Tony, I just… I always thought that maybe… God, this is hard._ "

"If you're gonna talk feelings, Rhodes, let me stop you right there."

" _I know, you don't wanna talk about it. And you're never gonna want to, are you? God knows I don't want to have this kind of conversation with you, but somehow I always end up drawing the short straw. What happened, Tony?_ "

"Well, you know, aliens attacked, I joined a group of superheroes, made knew friends, kicked some arse, just a regular day for Iron Man, you know how it goes."

" _Tony_ …," was Rhodey's exasperated response, just as Tony had expected it to be.

"What, Rhodey?"

" _Are you really gonna make me say it_?"

"Well, duh! I don't want to talk about it, so unless you bring the subject up…"

" _How wasn't that bringing the subj_ —"

"As you are occupied, I shall use your 'shower' first," Loki said from Tony's right – when had the bugger even stood up? Not that Tony had been paying attention, he'd completely forgotten he was there in the first place.

"Yeah, sure. Make yourself at home and all that."

Loki quirked an eyebrow. "I don't need to 'make' myself at home. This, unfortunately, _is_ my home, as much as it is yours."

"Unfortunately? You got something against my beautiful tower?"

Loki simply smirked and walked away, the arsehole. He could at least have said what his problem was! Tony's tower was awesome! Even Loki wouldn't be able to deny that! And if he did, it would be a lie, no doubt about it!

" _Er, Tony? Who was that?_ "

"Oh, just my soulmate, never mind."

" _Your_ what _?_ "

"The reason me and Pepper broke up."

"You shouldn't lie to your friends, Tony," came from the still open bathroom door.

"I'm not lying! If this whole invasion hadn't happened, I'd still be with Pepper! And if you hadn't been held by Thanos, then this invasion wouldn't have happened this way either! So, because you were there, Pepper and me broke up! Not a lie!"

Loki reappeared in the doorframe, his bare chest, free of dust, contrasting starkly with the rest of his greyish dirty skin. "You are right. If the events had been different, your lover would not have left you at this time. However, I don't think you truly believe that my presence is what ultimately caused the ruin of your relationship."

" _Tony? Who. Is. That?_ "

"How come you don't know? I thought you talked to Pepper?"

" _I don't think she mentioned you being with a_ guy _, Tony. And anyway, she was crying, so I'm lucky if I understood half of what she said_."

Tony swallowed. He didn't want to imagine how bad that conversation had been. He didn't want to imagine Pepper crying because of him. Again. She always cried because of him. She probably was better off without him. _He_ hadn't even shed a tear. He had barely thought about her since she left him, filling his time with work, and with Loki. He definitely was an arsehole.

" _So, what the hell happened?_ "

"It's a long story," Tony answered, and Rhodey's sigh was very loud indeed.

"Tony and I are soulmates," Loki oh-so-helpfully provided. "When souls are born, they are divided in two, and usually reunited in death. On extremely rare occasions, two half-souls can meet in the world of the living and fuse, connecting their recipients and making them, it would seem, inseparable."

"Hey, why didn't I get an explanation like this one? Why did I get the whole Yggra-tree thing and Fate Ladies and all that weird shit?"

"I have learned since then how ignorant mortals are."

"Gee, thanks for insulting my whole species!" Tony said, crossing his arms a bit too quickly, making it look like a defensive move. "Weren't you gonna take a shower or something?"

"How could I? You have yet to introduce me correctly to your…" Loki trailed off, lifting an inquiring eyebrow.

"Best friend." The second eyebrow went up as well. Tssk, as if Tony couldn't have enough friends to have 'best friends' or something! "Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes. Also known as War Machine ever since he stole one of my suits."

" _You said I could keep it_."

"As if you'd give it back even if I asked you to. And anyway, you sent me that very nice 'I'm so sorry please let me keep it it's so awesome' postcard that I framed and hung on my wall, so I guess we're even."

Loki's sigh was accompanied by a lot of impatience. "Why don't you introduce yourself then?" Tony asked, irritated.

"Very well. I am Loki of Asga—" Loki paused, clenched his jaw, and Tony was sure he could feel the same tightening of his chest that Loki was feeling. "I am Loki, formerly of Asgard. And as Tony's soulmate, I am both a friend, brother, lover" – shivers ran down Tony's spine at these words – "and yet none of those things."

" _Right… I can't say I understand much but… Where's Asgard?_ "

"He's an alien, Rhodey. From another planet."

"Asgard is not—"

"If you're not taking that shower, then I'll go first." Loki threw him a glare, but disappeared inside the bathroom without a word nonetheless.

" _Wait. Is he the one you were holding hands with on TV today? That was a guy?_ "

"Well, technically he's an alien, so it's different. But yeah, he's pretty much a guy. What did you think he was, a woman?" A chuckle escaped Tony at the thought of anyone thinking that Loki of all people was a woman. Come on! Sure, he had long hair, but that was, like, the only womanly part about him!

Rhodey's silence was rather telling. "What? You thought Loki was a _woman_?"

" _What else was I supposed to think? You were holding hands! And anyway, the shot was from pretty far away, and only from the back! I mean, come on, Tony! Of course I'd think you were with a woman! I thought that that was why Pepper broke up with you!_ "

"What, because I'd cheated? I don't cheat, Rhodey!"

" _How am I supposed to know that? You've never truly had a girlfriend before Pepper, you know. And before that, well. You've always liked variety, shall we say._ "

Rhodey's lack of faith was like a stab in the back. That other people would believe that Tony was a cheating arsehole, that was to be expected. But that even Rhodey would suspect him of doing such a thing… But maybe it was also Tony's fault. He called Rhodey his best friend, but they barely spent any time together.

"Hey Rhodes. Think you can get a day off for some much-needed revision on your War Machine suit?"

" _Is that your way of asking me to come over and meet your… whatever he is?_ "

"Soulmate. And no, I'm not kidding, that's the technical, scientific term the alien magic-wielding specialists gave me. But don't go imagining any romantic bullshit. And no, that's not why I want you to come."

" _What? Need a shoulder to cry on?_ " Definitely not. " _A buddy to drink beer with?_ " Well, he'd prefer something stronger, to be honest. " _Still, I want to meet your… boyfriend_." Tony could hear the smirk in that voice.

"He is _not_ my boyfriend! I don't _do_ boyfriends! You know I don't. Didn't we just talk about this?" Tony let his head fall back on the armchair, gaze fixed on the ceiling, and sighed. "Whatever. I just… need a familiar, friendly face right about now. And you haven't seen my Tower yet anyway. Just don't mind the half-destroyed state of it."

" _Do I get to meet Captain America and the rest of… What was it? The Avengers?_ "

"Since when am I not enough reason to fly all the way over here?"

" _Since I got fed up with your bullshit, Tony; I know, it took a while. But then I flew in one of your suits and got infected by your cooties, and I'm suddenly Tony-Stark-bullshit resistant. But yeah, I'll come._ "

"Awesome! I'll fill the fridge with beer. Just don't take too long, or someone else might have taken them all."

" _I'll see what I can do. If I promise the higher-ups an upgrade on the suit, they should let me go ASAP._ "

"An upgrade, huh? I guess I could do that. See you soon, then."

" _In a few days or so, yeah. Bye, Tony._ "

"Bye, Rhodey."

Tony extended his arm again towards his food supply, but it was too far now with the way he was sprawled in his armchair. The effort to sit up straighter and lean over felt like too much right now, though. He closed his eyes against the bright electric light, and concentrated on the surrounding sounds instead. The bathroom was silent – with the sound-proof walls he wouldn't be able to hear anything anyway – so he listened to the slight hum-like feeling of the bond.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Loki had stood naked and dry in the shower stall for a while, filth-crusted skin itching for a cleansing spell – or for its imperfect mortal equivalent, water and soap – while he breathed as silently as he could, and listened. The voices had been so faint he had barely been able to catch all the words, but he had been able to hear enough. Especially when it came to his soulmate's vehement protests about any relationship with a male. His hand had slapped the tiles reflexively, cracking one of them slightly, while he clenched down on the soul bond, trying to hide the sudden acute pain that metaphorically pierced his chest at the confirmation of Tony's lack of interest.

He was being so very pathetic! He had told himself not to think about it, about Tony, not to get his hopes up in any way, and still he lost control and let himself be hurt by the mere proof of what he already knew. For there had been no lie in Tony's words, of course. Tony would not consider him as a potential mate. They're souls may be one, but that was the only thing that would ever unite them. They're bodies would stay apart as much as they could, touching only for the sake of the bond, and they're hearts… Loki had always wanted, desired, hungered for someone to call his own, someone who would never forsake him, no matter how many mistakes he made – the Norns knew he made too many – and who better but his soulmate to fulfil the role no one else had ever even tried to audition for? And yet, Tony did not feel the same.

When silence reigned in the other room, Loki turned on the water at its strongest setting and tried to let his stupid, pathetic pain flow away in rivulets, along with the dust that covered him. He had to use the different soaps more than once to get rid of everything, but then he was finally clean, and almost calm. He knew this was how it was going to be. He had sensed it from the beginning. Nothing good ever happened to him anyway. Finding his soulmate was just a curse among the multitude of misfortunes he had been subjected to. He was Lady Fate's favourite play thing after all.

When he stood in the bathroom with only towels to clad himself, he remembered that his clothes – or rather, the clothes J.A.R.V.I.S. had provided him with for the time being – were still in the room downstairs. He opened the door to the bedchamber to find that nothing had changed; Tony was still sprawled in the same armchair, staring at the ceiling. When Loki walked passed, his eyes followed him, and Loki heard him hurriedly get up when his hand landed on the wardrobe door.

"Oh, yeah, hey, I started emptying some shelves for your stuff," Tony said while walking over. Indeed, three small shelves were empty, which was not even a tenth of the space provided for Tony's clothes. "Don't worry, I'll make more space. This was just a quick fix, just to put away the clothes you have for now. Which aren't here. They're still in the other room, right? D'you, erm… D'you want me to go get them, or…"

"Or?" Loki asked, lifting an eyebrow. What would his very fatigued-looking soulmate do? Go down to fetch his clothes, or, what? Let him pick something too small from the closet again?

"Or… nothing. You're not gonna walk down in a towel, right? So… Yeah, I'll go."

Tony walked out of the closet-room again, and Loki followed him. Tony continued towards the door, but Loki stopped, listening. Faint footsteps could be heard in the corridor, approaching their room at a brisk pace. Tony's hand had almost grabbed the doorknob when the person knocked, and the Midgardian took a startled step back. Recognising the magical signature, Loki shouldered passed him and opened the door.

On the other side of the threshold, Phil Coulson had his hand up in a knocking position, and he lowered it slowly, eyeing Loki's towel-clad form with lifting eyebrows. "Hello. I was led to believe that this was Mr. Stark's room?"

"It is," Tony said from behind him. "What do you want, Phil?"

"Oh, nothing much. I'm staying in your tower. Indefinitely. Just thought I'd tell you. And you're A.I. gave me a room, but the last occupant left some clothes there, so I thought I'd bring them up while I was at it. Looks like that was a good thing. You seem in dire need of them, Mr Friggason."

Loki accepted the bags and walked towards the wardrobe again. He stopped, and without looking back, answered: "I thank you, Coulson, however I would prefer you not to assume I am in dire need of anything. For all you know, I would not have needed clothes at all."

He heard Tony's sudden intake of breath accompanied by surprise and a sudden mix of embarrassment and some unidentifiable feelings coming from the bond. Loki quickly resumed his previous pace and walked – hid, if he was honest – within the safety of the closet. The door closed behind him on its own, probably through the thoughtfulness of J.A.R.V.I.S., and Loki leaned against it, the bags hitting the floor with a soft thump.

Why in Yggdrasil's name did he have to say such a thing? He was only torturing himself at this point, bringing images to the forefront of his mind that would never happen. Washing and changing clothes were probably going to be the only instances of nudity in these rooms that both involved Tony and him – any such event remaining separate, of course. By implying anything that might go beyond friendship – and he was not even sure if _that_ was on the table – he might turn Tony against him before they even really knew each other! Alienating one's soulmate in a matter of days. That may even be a new record! And of course _Loki_ would be the one who had the privilege of setting such a record. Did he not always?

An awkward silence had settled on the bedchamber for a short while, but Loki knew that both Tony and Coulson had not moved from their previous positions. He heard Tony clear his throat. "So you're staying, huh? Just like that. Wasn't Clint being a good enough spy for Fury?"

"I don't think he is, no. But Director Fury didn't send me."

"Oh, volunteering your services, are you?"

Coulson chuckled. "Not exactly. Fury doesn't know I'm here. He'll know soon enough, of course. But he owes me a real vacation, you see, and I intend to do that while staying here. You do know how to make a nice building, after all."

"Nice? _Nice_? I'll let you know my tower is awesome!"

"One more reason to stay, then. I'll serve as liaison between the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D.. That way you won't be driving Fury insane with the stunts you usually pull, because I'll be watching you."

Tony snorted loudly enough for Loki to hear the derision in it clearly. "You think you being here is gonna stop me?"

"Stop you, maybe not. Make you think twice about it, I certainly hope so. I'd advise you to, anyway."

"Right. So instead of going to Hawaii or wherever you went—"

"Tahiti. It's a magical place."

"Right. If it's magical I wouldn't go there if I were you."

"It's just a figure of speech, Stark," Coulson sighed, somewhat irritated; the first true emotion he had shown all evening.

"You can just say it, you know. You want to stay here because of the Capsicle." The silence stretched after Tony's words, and smugness spiked through the bond. "Ha! I knew it!"

"So, Loki and you. Sharing rooms already, I see."

The smugness died down immediately. "Yes, well, we're soulmates, so."

"Yes, I was wondering how that worked. Is it like love at first sight?"

"What? NO! Are you crazy?" Tony sounded slightly panicked. "It's just that there is a stupid rule where we need to touch for a few hours a day to… keep the soul bond healthy or whatever."

"Did Loki tell you that?"

"We found it out together. And anyway, even if he did simply tell me, he wouldn't lie."

"Are you sure you're all right, Stark? You are trusting _Loki_ , of all people. You. Trusting an alien you met on the opposite side of a war. Sure, he was being real nice today, but he isn't known as the Trickster for nothing. And you still trust him?"

"Crazy, right?" Yes, it certainly was. Just as crazy as Loki trusting Tony, a notoriously reckless mortal. "But I'm thinking that the 'I can feel when you lie' and 'I can kinda feel what you're feeling' helps a lot." It certainly did. Loki had never gotten so close to someone in such a short amount of time, and they had barely talked of anything significant! And yet the amount of information they had about each other just through what they could _feel_ was staggering.

While Loki changed into pyjama bottoms, Coulson bade Tony good night, and when Loki walked out of the wardrobe the bathroom door clicked shut, and the shower began running not soon after. Loki sat down on his side of the bed, trying not to think of what sharing a bed often implied, or how his soulmate was _naked_ right now, running his hands over his bare skin. It had been quite a long time since Loki had been intimate with anyone. The last time was almost half a century ago; he had been caught in bed with a Ljósálfr – a male Ljósálfr of low birth – which had resulted in public humiliation and any potential partner refusing his advances in fear of being disgraced. Strangely enough, Thor had never heard of the incident. If he had, he might not have been as quick to defend Loki's honour when he thought Barton was calling him argr. At that point, most of the Asgardian court and beyond already knew he was.

Loki wondered for a moment if his tendency to not care about his partner's sex was simply due to his own hermaphrodite origin. He had not known that he was not purely male, and yet perhaps the truth of his blood had influenced his choices nonetheless. Or, his Jötunn true body made no difference at all when it came to his preferences – or lack thereof. Either way, he had lain with both male and female partners in the past, and now he had no problems at all imagining himself with Tony. He was his soulmate; Fate probably _wanted_ him to imagine that scenario. It was only natural, was it not? And yet, he could not have the real thing, unsurprisingly. Because he lived as male, because he was a hideous monster beyond his glamour – no matter what Tony said about liking blue skin. They would never truly be one. Fate was cruel after all.

The feelings of warmth, contentment and relaxation that had been coming through the bond slowly transformed into concern when the water stopped running, and Loki realised his hold on his mental shielding was anything but perfect. He smothered their connection reflexively, and even though Tony's feelings were now muffled, he knew the concern spiked the moment he clamped down on the bond. The next moment, a very wet Tony stepped out of the bathroom, and Loki had to force his eyes away. He fisted the sheets and looked at the lights of the city instead.

"Are you okay? Don't tell me you're brooding all alone out here because you're already lacking my charming company?"

"I really need to search for the Midgardian definition of 'charming'."

"Tsss! As if a dictionary would help. There's no guy more charming than Tony Stark, baby, anyone could tell you that!" Loki saw Tony designating his whole body from the corner of his eye while he spoke, and his gaze could only turn to him and follow the movement. Charisma had no true correlation to physical attributes – it was not charm that made the droplets gliding down Tony's throat, down over tan skin, down over the scars and around the Arc reactor, down a slightly toned stomach until it was absorbed by the towel haphazardly wrapped around the man's hips, so mesmerizing. No, charm was in that blinding smile that was now disappearing, now that Loki's gaze had glided down Tony's body in a manner obviously beyond friendly.

His soulmate cleared his throat. "Right. Seems like you get it. Awesome. I'll just… put some clothes on. Yep. Be right back." And he hurriedly disappeared into the closet.

Fantastic. Now Tony was feeling just as awful as he was, but for different reasons entirely. And Loki was being way too obvious. Soon, his soulmate would not even want to stay in the same room as him for fear of being violated by Loki's staring, accompanied by indecent thoughts. Loki stood up, threw the covers aside, and got into bed, looking at the ceiling. Today really hadn't been a good day. Digging up trapped mortals for hours on end – having to stop from time to time when they stumbled upon mangled bodies – and holding Tony's hand so many times, as a poor substitute of things he could not have. He did not want to want Tony in any way; he did not want to want him physically, he did not want to want him romantically… And yet it looked like all that was starting to happen anyway, without his consent. Damn his traitorous heart!

Tony reappeared, wearing – unsurprisingly – a night garment that covered him almost entirely, leaving only hands, feet and head bare. That was proof enough that Loki had made him uncomfortable with his wandering eyes. Silently, Tony walked around the bed and slipped under the covers on his side of the bed. They laid there for a while, lights dimmed but not fully switched off.

"Hand," Tony said after a while, and Loki immediately thrust his hand to the middle of the bed, where its warmer counterpart seized it. The bond sang its reconnection, and Loki closed his eyes, just feeling. They might not have needed any touching tonight – they had touched intermittently all day – but if Tony had not realised that this might not be necessary… Loki certainly was not the one who would tell him otherwise.

"Good night, Loks."

"Sleep well, Tony."

And silence reigned for a long time.

* * *

Firstly, awwww, Loki, darling! And secondly, come on Tony, even if Loki is a guy, he's gorgeous, how can you not fall for all _that_? *designates Loki from head to toe* And anyway, he's your soulmate. It's destiny. You can't stop that :p

So, the new update will be two weeks from now, and we'll see if I can keep that up with all the work I'll have to do. Let's cross our fingers and hope for the best!

 _Spread the Luv_ _!_

 **LL**


	22. Chapter 22

Woah! I finished just in time! I have even less time to write than I thought. Some parts of this were written while having a fever, so if it gets weird, that might be why.

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _"Hand," Tony said after a while, and Loki immediately thrust his hand to the middle of the bed, where its warmer counterpart seized it. The bond sang its reconnection, and Loki closed his eyes, just feeling. They might not have needed any touching tonight – they had touched intermittently all day – but if Tony had not realised that this might not be necessary… Loki certainly was not the one who would tell him otherwise._

" _Good night, Loks."_

" _Sleep well, Tony."_

 _And silence reigned for a long time._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 22**

Tony couldn't sleep. He was exhausted, his muscles felt like lead, his mind was sluggish as hell, but he couldn't sleep. And that was extremely annoying. Unlike yesterday, the reason why he couldn't sleep wasn't because of some outside force – AKA the bond. He was holding Loki's hand, and the bond was as strong as it could be. Sure, holding hands was damned awkward, but it wasn't like it hadn't happened before, so that shouldn't stop him from sleeping. And it didn't. Not really. But at the same time, it did.

The problem were the thoughts running through Tony's head. He just couldn't stop thinking. If those thoughts had been amazing ideas for new tech, or silly ideas for useless inventions, he would have been okay with it. That happened reasonably often, and he'd just give up on sleep and work for a bit, and all would be fine. Now, though, his thoughts concerned none other than Loki, and that was annoying. Very annoying.

And the most annoying thing of all was that he didn't know _what_ to think. Loki was his soulmate. That in itself was crazy already. But even if he ignored that _that_ little titbit of information was awkward as fuck, and even if he pretended that it was pretty normal to suddenly have to share your life with some random person in the name of 'fate', it – or rather, Loki – made no sense. Or, well, it wasn't that Loki made no sense. Tony probably just didn't understand him. Yet. The guy was an alien, so that was probably normal anyway. What made no sense was Loki and him being soulmates. Who in God's name had made _them_ soulmates? Okay, so they probably weren't _made_ soulmates, they already were before they were born, but why where their half-souls-or-whatever born in a way that made them like _this_? In a way that made them who they were right now?

Because right now, Tony didn't see what they had in common that would make all this being-soulmates shit okay. To be honest, Loki was kind of fucked up. Sure, Tony was too, but not as much. Probably. It was kinda logical that Loki would've lived through way more shit than Tony, so he should be way more fucked up as a consequence.

From what he'd understood so far, a lot of bad things had happened to him. Stuff like being betrayed by a father figure and all that – yeah, maybe a bit like with Obadiah, but worse because he'd thought Odin was real his father? Then again, had Odin tried to kill Loki? 'Cause Obie had tried to kill him, so that may actually be worse. But the way Tony understood it, Loki had always felt stuck in Thor's shadow, trying to be accepted by Odin even though he wasn't as perfect a son as Thor – and being adopted made that seem all the more impossible. Tony had always looked for Howard's approval as well. But Howard was dead. A video with 'Tony, you are my greatest creation' was not the same as a chance to hear even the slightest praise from a father who was still alive. Loki could still have that someday. Perhaps. If he didn't fuck up even more than he'd already done.

They probably both attracted trouble. Tony certainly did. And the way Loki always spat out the word 'fate' like it was a curse probably meant shit always happened to him too; he couldn't have instigated all that trouble himself – he was an intelligent guy, if it was his fault he'd do something about it, surely. The both of them together had to be the worst idea ever; trouble times trouble just made things expansionally worse.

So yeah, Lady Fate or whatever had kind of fucked up the whole soulmate thing. Sure, they'd both led privileged – yet also shitty – lives from what Tony understood, and some might say that at least that way they would be able to 'get' each other; that was nice and all, but how was that enough to make them, like, best buddies all of a sudden? How did 'misery loves company' make a good relationship? Especially a relationship as complicated and intimate as the one forced upon them by the bond?

There was no way Loki wasn't going to get fed up with him real soon. Everybody did. Even Pepper after a while. They all needed a break from Tony at some point. And Loki wouldn't be able to get away at all. And there were a lot of people Tony couldn't stand for long as well, so between him being Iron Man and Loki being an alien ice-man-wizard and all that, the situation might get rather explosive.

Unless somehow, miraculously, Loki was the exception to every rule. Unless somehow, they became, like, best friends and as close as family or something, and didn't feel the need to throttle each other every day. Unless somehow, Tony managed to dredge up every ounce of patience he had so that they could survive this marriage-like closeness – _and_ if Loki did the same; he didn't look like a very patient guy to Tony. So yeah, they were doomed unless Fate was actually an intelligent woman-alien-goddess and had done her job correctly, and Loki was one of the rare people Tony could like. But that would be believing in, and trusting, the Fate lady, and Tony had no reason to do that. So they were probably fucked.

And anyway, if Fate had thought them perfect for each other, she had majorily fucked up on one very important point; they were both guys. Well, kinda. Right? Visually, yes. And mentally too. That was what was important, right? Fate just didn't take that into account, if Fate existed. If it was all a mere coincidence, then it wasn't surprising that it didn't work. But if a Lady Fate there was, she had only looked at the theoretical capacity of making kids.

Woah, woah, woah! Kids? He hadn't thought of that! He'd never had any intention of having children, so he hadn't thought of this but... If Loki was a hermaphrodite, if he was both male and female, then that meant he could... bear a child, right? Tony couldn't even imagine how that must be. For Loki to find out suddenly that he could both father and bear children. He couldn't imagine Loki with a baby bump. That was just wrong. He could understand very well how Loki didn't want to think of himself as anything other than male, as he'd always thought he was.

Still, he wasn't male physically, and Tony couldn't help but wonder what that involved exactly; he was a scientist, and even though biology wasn't really his thing, xenobiology was another matter entirely – especially since it involved his soulmate. He really wanted to do as many tests as he humanly could to find out what Jötunn biology was like. And that included of course the mystery of the somehow double sexual organs. It was kinda wrong to be wondering these things while actually holding Loki's hand, but still, he was curious. He had always thought of two states of being: male OR female. _So what's a hermaphrodite like?_

"If you are asking what it's like to be one, then I am… uncertain."

Tony eye's widened. Shit, did he say that out loud? How much did he say out loud? And since when was Loki awake? The bond had been quiet, so Tony had assumed Loki was sleeping. "Did I wake you? Sorry."

"No, I could not sleep. And neither could you, it would seem. You have been thinking a lot. The bond was very loud."

"Oh. Yeah. I still need to learn that shielding thing. But let's go back to what you just said." Tony rolled on his side, bringing their joined hands to pillow height which forced Loki to face him as well for comfort's sake. Tony pushed the covers down a bit, and the muffled light of his Arc reactor made Loki's eyes glow slightly. "Just to be clear. There is no denying that you _are_ a hermaphrodite, so… You don't know what it's like to be _you_?"

"I don't know what it's like to be something not entirely male. I have always been male, in my mind. Though I have shapeshifted into a female form once."

"You've been a woman?" Tony just couldn't imagine what that looked like. "Wha— How was it?"

"I didn't remain in that form for long. It was very… different. Yet the same. It was rather disturbing. I prefer using illusions instead."

"What's the difference?"

"Illusions only give the exterior appearance of something, while shapeshifting means physically becoming something."

"Right. Have you ever shapeshifted into something weird?" Loki remained silent for a minute, which Tony took for the 'yes' it was. He grinned. "Come on, tell me."

Loki grimaced in the faint light. "I would advise not to shapeshift into anything with more than two legs."

"Duly noted. Not that little human me needs to remember that. So, what did you transfigure yourself into? What's your Animagus form?" He hoped it was something embarrassing – it seemed like it hadn't been a very nice experience after all.

"I will leave that to your boundless imagination."

Yep, embarrassing it had been. Tony would have liked to know, though. "You're no fun," he said in a pouty voice, but Loki's stare remained unwaveringly unimpressed. "So, you're really only a hermaphrodite physically when you're Jötunn, right? How do you feel when you turn blue?"

"I feel no different." Tony gave him a look, and Loki amended: "I do feel different, but not because of my genitals, I'm sure."

"Well, maybe that's because you're still kind of half male. Or because it's the body you were born with."

"Perhaps."

"How different is it anyway?"

Loki sighed, and Tony could feel a twinge of annoyance coming from him. "How different is what?"

"Your Jötunn body. I mean, you've checked yourself out in the mirror, right? Gotta have. That's like the first thing I would do in your place."

Loki's eyebrows went up. "Would you? Would you really want to look at yourself and not see yourself, but a monster looking back?"

Oh, for God's sake! "There we go again," Tony sighed. He closed his eyes for a second, trying to push down the annoyance of having to repeat himself. "You're not a monster! You're just as… as… _you,_ whatever the skin colour."

"Just as 'me'?"

"Yeah, you know. God, you're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" Tony felt like somehow, though, Loki wasn't doing it on purpose. He took a deep breath and rolled on his back, slinging his free arm over his eyes. He took a deep breath. "Whatever your skin, you're gorgeous. There. You happy now, making me spout embarrassing stuff?" Nope, his face wasn't heating up. It wasn't! Fuck, almost complete darkness was awesome for a good reason.

"No," Loki said clearly; that was a huge big fat lie and they both knew it. What Tony wasn't sure of was the true meaning behind his soulmate's 'happiness'; was he glad Tony embarrassed himself with that weird though heartfelt compliment – he could find a guy objectively gorgeous without it meaning anything else, right? Or was Loki glad because at least one person found the body he hated beautiful? It was probably both. There was no way Loki wouldn't like to see him embarrass himself.

Well, in for a dime, in for a dollar. A little bit more embarrassement wouldn't kill him. Probably. Loki had been kind of forthcoming so far, so Tony might be able to learn more if he just asked. And the curiosity was gnawing away at him. How to ask, though, was another matter.

"Well… Erm, as a hermaphrodite, you're, like… You said you were, like… half male, half female, so…" God, he was making no sense whatsoever.

"To you I believe I would simply look male." Aaaand Loki understood he meant physically. That guy was a genius. Thank God. Or the Norns or the tree or whatever.

"Right. So there is no, errr. No extra…" Jesus fucking Christ, what the hell was he saying? Or not saying, for that matter _. Hello, brain! Please give me back my eloquence!_

"Hole?" Oh God! Oh God, oh God, oh God! Tony pressed his arm further down over his eyes, squishing his nose in the process. Suddenly he felt like he didn't need to know. "No, there is not."

Oh? Then how did it all work? Was it a bit like a cloaca – only partially like one, as he was pretty sure that the penis remained... No, he had not just been picturing that! "Okay, stop! That's too much information!" Now, he was picturing— Nope! Nope, nope, nope! He wasn't imagining anything! Just… Yeah, no. Don't think about blue genitalia. Don't think about… He wondered how it must look in blue. Were there any of the darker marking there too— NO! HE WASN'T PICTURING ANYTHING! "I think I'm gonna go to sleep now. Yeah, that's an awesome idea. Good night."

He could feel Loki smirk, and knew it wasn't over. "Mortal women are self-lubricating as well, correct?"

Tony groaned. "Oh. My. God!" Why the hell had he started talking about all this?

"Yes, dear?"

That arsehole thought himself funny. "Shut up. Just shut up." Loki's chuckle wasn't loud, but it was definitely there. Unbelievable! What the hell did he think he was doing anyw— "Wait. You said 'as well'. So you mean..."

"Yes."

Yeah, he really didn't want to know that. "Okay, now shut up."

He really wanted to roll over and have his back facing Loki, but they were holding hands, so he couldn't – and anyway, hiding away was not something he did. So he just remained on his back, made himself comfortable and closed his eyes after a final look at the ceiling. He didn't think he'd be able to fall asleep after all that, but then his thoughts drifted away and his consciousness faded.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Tony was sleeping. The quietened bond was enough proof of that, but what made it really obvious was the position. In his sleep, Tony had slowly crept closer until his cheek found Loki's bicep, and had draped himself half over his chest, a surprisingly cold foot – not cold to Loki, but cold compared to the rest of Tony's body – pushing against the fabric of his pyjama bottoms, between his calves. It really contrasted with his soulmate's previous bashfulness. Loki certainly was not complaining. This was the closest he could get to Tony after all.

Loki had not been expecting that conversation. Tony's curiosity – and later his embarrassment – was palpable all throughout, as was his truthfulness. Tony's reiteration of his opinion on his Jötunn skin – his own self-depreciation had been a reflex – had been surprising, and though the word 'gorgeous' was really flattering, it also made his chest clench painfully when he replayed it in his mind. The only thing Tony appreciated was the exoticness of his features, not who Loki really was. And why would he? They barely knew each other, and that was a good thing. The more Tony learned about Loki, the less he would like him. That was how it always was.

Yes, they barely knew each other. And yet, he felt like he had known Tony for much longer than merely days. The soul bond must be at fault. Trying to push them together, to get them to be closer. And Loki was letting himself be influenced by Urd's meddling like a novice warlock unable to withstand a basic compulsion spell. Tony didn't seem to have such problems. He was either resistant to any such influence – highly unlikely for a Midgardian – or the soul bond was not working in the same manner on him. It was unfortunate that Loki did not have that luxury.

He tried to resist the appeal of wanting everything of Tony; he had his half-soul, he had access to some of his feelings, he could always know where he was, but he wanted more. He wanted things he could not have. He had the soul, he had part of the mind, but he wanted the body and heart as well. It was a foolish thing to want. He was Loki. If anyone had seen past the mask, they wouldn't have called him Trickster God, but Unlucky God. Not that the title of 'God' was given to anyone who wasn't Æsir or Vanir. He did not really have such a title anymore.

Loki took Tony's other hand which was splayed over his ribs, and moved it over his heart instead – over his magical core, his Jötunn heart, not his Áss heart. He interlaced their fingers, his palm to the back of Tony's hand, and closed his eyes. The flow of their bond was even stronger now, and he let it lull him to sleep.

He woke up to light snoring and growing light coming through the windows.

"Good morning, Mr Friggason, Sir. I have been asked by Deputy Director Coulson to wake you, as, and I quote, 'people the world looks up to shouldn't laze in bed'." The Artificial Intelligence's voice sounded rather amused.

"Do you answer to Coulson as well now, J.A.R.V.I.S?" he asked the ceiling.

"Yeah, what he said," came Tony's sleepy voice, muffled by the skin of Loki's arm. He then groggily lifted his head, and looked at Loki – his face was closer than expected, and Loki stopped breathing instinctually. "Hi. Did you know you look rather blue?"

Oh, curse the Allfather and all his ancestors! Loki didn't even need to look down at his naked chest to know he was wearing his true skin; now that he knew, he could feel it, that difference. He groaned and closed his eyes. Why was this happening to him all the time? He'd never had trouble keeping his Áss skin before all this. He opened his eyes again and looked at Tony, who seemed much more awake all of a sudden.

"Is this going to be a thing now? Yeah, I think it's definitely going to be a thing. You know, I don't even know why you bother changing your appearance. No, I know why you bother, but I think it's stupid. But you already know what I think of your real skin."

Yes, Loki remembered that very clearly. "Oh, what was that again? It slipped my mind. Perhaps you could remind me," he said with a smirk.

"As if I'm ever gonna say that again." Loki's smirk widened. "Don't get cocky, mister. Or I might cut off your access to that little source of magic of mine," Tony said, covering up the faint light of the Arc reactor that came through his shirt. A 'little' source of magic it was definitely not.

"You do know I can use your magical energy by touching you anywhere, yes? It might be slower, but it would work just as well to help me shapeshift."

Tony scrambled back, severing their connection when their skin contact stopped. Loki sat up and bared his now pointy teeth in a predatory display. "Is that a challenge?" he asked, his blood rushing faster through his veins in anticipation.

Tony blinked a couple of times, taken aback. "Er…." He looked Loki squarely in the eye, and the instant he made up his mind was very clear, determination expanding in the bond like wildfire. His muscles tautened, like a prey tensing before flight. "Yes," he said, and Loki lunged, his smirk growing into a grin.

Tony rolled and slipped off the bed with enough force to have his breath expelled from his lungs, but he did not let that stop him. He clambered back to his feet just before Loki could grab him, and his dark, sharp nails grazed the Midgardian's shirt – he would have to cut those short, they were awfully impractical. While Tony ran to the other side of the room, Loki merely walked. There was no need to rush this. It would be over soon enough anyway.

Tony had taken refuge behind one of the couches, following Loki with his eyes, knees flexed, poised for a run. Loki could taste the adrenaline wafting through the air. Loki went left around the piece of furniture, and Tony turned around it as well, keeping it as a wall between them. They walked in a circle once, twice, thrice, before Loki had enough and simply walked over the obstacle in two big steps. Tony wasted no time and ran again, but this time Loki did not let him go far.

He accelerated, grasped Tony's shoulder and yanked it backwards, forcing him to turn on himself. Tony lost his balance and started falling backwards, so Loki shifted his grip to brace the mortal behind the head, and added a hand on the small of his back just before he hit the ground. Before Tony could think of crawling out from under Loki's crouched form, he sat down on his stomach, forcing a groan from his soulmate's lips at the weight.

Tony gulped in some quick breaths, eyes fixed on the ceiling, and Loki let his hands fall back on his own knees. This had ended too quickly for his taste. He should have drawn it out longer. For now, he could just enjoy this probably very rare position they were in, and hope Tony wouldn't ask him to get up too soon.

"God, I'm too old for this."

"You are merely saying that because you lost so quickly."

Tony frowned, slight irritation making itself known. "Okay, let me rephrase that. Dear powers above, I'm too human to compete physically with someone who has been compared to a divine entity."

Loki quirked an eyebrow. "Are you saying that you would not have lost if you had been wearing your armour?"

Now it was Tony's turn to smirk. "You, with only super strength and no magic? Let me think— Yeah. Yeah, I think I could win that."

The gall of that mortal! "I am not completely without magic." Loki concentrated on his entire skin, not unlike the beginning of his shapeshifting, and activated its natural elemental capacity. He leaned forward and put his hands on the ground, on both sides of Tony's head. Ice spread like a circular wave around them, creeping up their clothes and forming tiny crystals in Tony's hair.

Tony grabbed his left lower arm. "Ooookay, Princess, you can stop freezing the carpet now." Loki waited at least two full seconds, looking at Tony's dark irises with narrowed eyes, before extinguishing his racial magic. The ice, of course, remained. "You're so gonna be the one mopping up the lake this will make when it thaws."

As if he would get down on his knees to mop a floor! He used the skin contact Tony was so helpfully providing and formed a small but effective spell. The ice crystals heated up instantly and evaporated in a blaze of hot steam – it was slightly painful when it passed against Loki's blue skin, condensing immediately against it and leaving him wet, but the rest dissipated quickly.

Tony hissed. "Woah! Some warning would be nice! Didn't they teach you manners in Godly Land?"

"Have you met Thor?"

"Right. We'll put Etiquette for Dummies on your reading list then. For both of you."

"You might want to read it as well, Sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. added helpfully.

"Fuck you, J.A.R.V.'. I can be polite and all that shit if I want to."

While he was arguing with his own creation, Tony's fingers trailed over Loki's markings on his arm – he didn't seem to realise he was doing it, and Loki wouldn't be pointing it out to him. Somehow, it seemed to Loki that while he was wearing his Jötunn skin, Tony was less reluctant to touch him; the fascination he seemed to have for this exotic-looking skin had its advantages after all. What Loki didn't know, was if those advantages outweighed his almost visceral need to get back into smooth and creamy-white skin.

The door slammed open, and Tony fell silent in his complaints about the 'traitorous' J.A.R.V.I.S.. "Nat' says to come down to breakf—" came Barton's bored tone until it cut off in a strange amalgamation of a gurgle and a yelp, and the door slammed shut again.

Silence reigned for half a minute in which Tony lay utterly still under him, until his soulmate turned his head to the side – avoiding his gaze, no doubt – and chuckled uneasily. "Well, that was awkward," he added, and continued to stare to his left until Loki reluctantly – regrettably – stood up. So much for the playful and companionable moment they had shared.

* * *

Will Loki stay blue for long? What do you think ;)

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**

PS: I'm not sure I can keep the 'every other weekend' scheme. I might have to switch to 'a chapter whenever I finish one' :(


	23. Chapter 23

Rejoice! A new chapter is finally upon us! I've been so busy, I didn't think I'd ever be able to finish this before more than a month had passed since the last chapter, but here we are, exactly a month later XD (I'd have felt really bad if it had taken more than that.) I had some difficulties writing this chapter, I don't know why, but I hope you'll like it nonetheless ;)

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _The door slammed open, and Tony fell silent in his complaints about the 'traitorous' J.A.R.V.I.S.. "Nat' says to come down to breakf—" came Barton's bored tone until it cut off in a strange amalgamation of a gurgle and a yelp, and the door slammed shut again._

 _Silence reigned for half a minute in which Tony lay utterly still under him, until his soulmate turned his head to the side – avoiding his gaze, no doubt – and chuckled uneasily. "Well, that was awkward," he added, and continued to stare to his left until Loki reluctantly – regrettably – stood up. So much for the playful and companionable moment they had shared._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 23**

Tony stared at his reflection in the mirror, shaver held aloft while he inspected his face without really seeing it. God, had they truly done that? Playing Tag, really? How old was he, twelve? (A disturbing amount of people would agree with that statement, he was sure of it). And then the whole having Loki _sit on top of him_ , and he didn't even try to get away! He blamed it on being a superhero, really. He got into fights too often and forgot the _other_ meaning of having someone on top of him. Come on, he wasn't used to having to consider guys in the same light as women, okay! Now Clint had a new image to fuel his crazy fantasies, and when Tony _did_ realise that having his _soulmate_ on top wasn't as innocent as all that, he'd reacted like some blushing virgin and made the whole thing awkward.

Standing silently in the room, not looking at each other, and Loki firmly clamping down on the bond… Yeah, definitely awkward. And before that, Loki's feelings had gone from joy and whatnot to some indescribable… not-joy. It wasn't like anger, or disappointment, or embarrassment – at least Tony thought he would have been able to recognise those feelings, even muted.

It was kind of difficult to read feelings that weren't his. He often had trouble reading his own feelings. Though somehow, it was easier to _identify_ feelings that weren't his. And at the same time, it was more difficult to distinguish them from one another. Like looking at someone through a rain-washed window; you could see them in their entirety – it is different from seeing yourself, you can't see yourself entirely without a mirror – but the image is a bit blurred and the features are not as distinguishable.

So, in the awkwardness of the situation, he had fled to the bathroom with the excuse of shaving and brushing his teeth, but the problem remained. That had been a sexually loaded scene right there, and he hadn't even recognised it until Clint had walked in! _Him_ , not recognising the connotations of their position! But then again, it didn't look like Loki had been aware of it either, so if they both hadn't thought anything of it, it probably didn't mean anything. A bit like their weird-arse conversation of last night.

Tony couldn't believe the things they'd talked about! Now, in the morning light, that conversation felt way more wrong than when he'd actually been struggling through it at God knew what hour. He blamed his tired brain for thinking strange shit and not recognising how wrong those questions and comments were before they left his mouth. Loki seemed to have a crazily good memory, so Tony hoped _that_ conversation wouldn't come back to bite him in the arse in the form of inconvenient quotes. He hated when people quoted his own words back at him. And this time he wouldn't be able to blame it on alcohol or head injury or something. This was bound to blow up in his face.

But first, he had to deal with the current situation. The best thing to do was probably to ignore it. If he just acted like everything was normal and fine, then Loki would probably follow suit, and everything would actually _be_ normal and fine. Yep, great plan! He wasn't a genius for nothing after all.

Tony checked his reflection one last time and walked out of the bathroom, and straight to the walk-in. The door was ajar, so he pushed it open and stopped. Oh. He blinked. That sure was one fine looking blue arse. And those markings did seem to go down all the way. A second passed, then two. The immobility was broken by Loki slowly turning his head, and Tony only caught the movement when a strand of black hair shifted significantly – to be fair, his gaze had been concentrated somewhere lower. He slammed the door shut before Loki could turn his head far enough to really look at him, but still – he felt like being caught red-handed like some creepy peeping Tom! Talk about 'acting like everything was normal'!

"Sorry!" Tony called out belatedly. Looked like today was going to be an _awesome_ day. Again. If that wasn't proof for the 'Tony plus Loki equals trouble' theory, he didn't know what was. And the worst of it all; _he had been checking out a guy's arse_! The excuse of it being blue wouldn't hold up long in the 'strictly heterosexual behaviour' court – he hadn't been looking at it in a scientific light. Nor in a woah-that's-a well-built-bottom-I-wish-I-had-the-same type of reaction he might have if he ever saw the Cap's arse. Which he wished he never would have to see because it would probably crush his own self-esteem – Tony had a great butt and he knew it, but comparing it to a superhuman one wouldn't do him any good.

On the other hand, he would have preferred ruining the pride he had in his self-image by seeing Steve Roger's perfect body, than the thought that had shot through his mind by seeing Loki's backside. Thinking of touching it was bad, right? Real bad. And not just poking it, or probing the skin with some scanning device, but honest to God _cupping_ it with both hands – yeah, that was bad. That wasn't the type of thoughts he was supposed to have. This had to be some glitch in the Matrix. He wasn't supposed to look at _Loki_ 's body like that!

All right, breathe, Tony. Just a one-time weird thought. Everything was normal and fine. _Everything was normal and fine_! If he just kept repeating it, surely he'd be able to fool himself into believing it was true. _If_ he kept it up for an hour or two. Everything was normal and fine. Everything was n—

The door of the walk-in closet – the one he'd been leaning against for some much-needed physical support – suddenly disappeared when it was opened with a jerk, and Tony almost landed on his own not-blue-but-still-good-looking arse.

"Will you stop pestering me with your idiotic panic attacks?" said the owner of the hand that had stopped his sudden backward momentum, and Tony quickly turned around to stare at Loki's blue, blue face and his oh-so-red eyes.

Did he look like a deer caught in headlight? He did, didn't he? He should probably stop that. He opened his mouth; if he said something clever to diffuse the situation, everything would be fine. "Er…" Yep. Perfect. So very useful. That shaver must have cut off more than facial hair – it turned his brain to mush, obviously. They should put a warning on the package. Maybe he should sue them for ruining Tony Stark's amazing genius. And then make his own Stark shaver; why hadn't he thought of that before? A Stark shaver would be so much bett—

"Tony!"

"Yes?"

Loki was frowning now. "Are you all right?"

"Yes." Wrong answer. It was a reflex, really. He always said he was fine, whether it was true or not – usually it wasn't. Loki's eyebrow twitched menacingly. "Okay, maybe not. I don't know. I guess so much weird shit has been happening to me recently that I can't keep up, and now I feel like I just stepped through the looking-glass. I'll get over it soon enough." Tony stepped backwards so that he cleared the threshold. Loki was only wearing a pair of grey jeans, and he had what looked like a black tee clutched in his hand. "Sorry about barging in. I'm not used to having people in my closet. I'll let you finish getting dressed."

"Was that why you were so distressed? Because you saw me without clothes?" Tony remained silent; he couldn't answer even if he wanted to. If he said 'yes', the bond might see it as a partial lie; he had been distressed by the consequence of seeing Loki naked from behind – as in his brain mistakenly making the situation an inappropriate one – not by the fact of _seeing_ Loki naked per say. "I do not mind," Loki added.

"You don't?" The moment Tony said that, he wondered why he sounded so surprised. Would he really care if Loki were to see his butt? Who cared, right? More people than he could count had seen him naked, why should he care about one more? Yet somehow, he felt that having Loki seeing him in nothing but his skin would be very uncomfortable and awkward. How did this make sense? Yeah, it didn't. His brain was fucked up, end of story.

"On Asgard, people don't care about nudity as much as Midgardians seem to do. And even though it makes no sense, I don't feel as naked wearing this skin as I would my Áss one."

"Really? I'd have thought you'd feel _more_ naked, this being your true skin and all."

A sudden chill swept through the room – unless it was through the bond. Either way, it raised goosebumps on Tony's arms. Loki cocked his head, and it all seemed rather menacing. "Mmmh. Perhaps you are right. Perhaps I _should_ mind that you saw me in such a fashion; I believe the phrase you use is 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do'. And you are after all the first to ever see so much of my true skin. You _could_ say I have never been so naked before…"

Tony felt his face heat up – what the hell, face! There was no reason to do that! His mouth started spewing out excuses as a reflex; hopefully it distracted Loki from the heat coming from his cheekbones and ears. "Yes, I know, and as I said, I'm sorry! Very sorry! Didn't do it on purpose! I'll make sure to knock next time. I—"

He felt the amusement prickle his senses even before Loki started to laugh. The bastard! He was just making Tony feel embarrassed and guilty for his own enjoyment! Tony closed his gaping mouth, huffed and pushed past Loki to get inside the walk-in. He was going to ignore the last five minutes and get dressed. He needed to get down to breakfast – or rather, get down to COFFEE. Coffee was life! Coffee could make everything better. And an Irish coffee would be the best.

Loki grabbed the last of his stuff – everything had been neatly arranged on the shelves he'd been given – and walked out, closing the door behind him. Tony made a beeline for the 'jeans & tee' section – no he wasn't copying Loki's casual look, and he'd blast the face off of anyone who dared to even think about them matching outfits – and took the brightest items he could find, which was just a regular pair of blue jeans, and a red 'I am Iron Man' tee-shirt. If that wasn't a one hundred percent 'casual Tony Stark' look, he didn't know what was. If anything, Loki was the one copying _him_. In which case it was all fine, because, yes, Tony had good, sensible taste when it came to fashion. Most of the time anyway.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Loki tried not to stare at his reflection in the mirror, brush held aloft while he inspected his hair without really seeing it. By Yggdrasil, had what he thought happened truly happened? He might have misinterpreted what he had felt – he most probably had. Otherwise, it might mean he had a chance, a tiny chance, of everything working out the way he wished it to; and that had never, ever happened before. No, he had misinterpreted Tony's feelings. He must have. Still, it was nice to imagine, just for a second, that it was real.

After the whole 'chasing each other around like young children' that had ended in the most unfortunate position they could be caught in, Loki had thought Tony would be embarrassed – which he had definitely been – and upset – which he had not been – and he had feared that Tony might have understood some of the deeper feelings he had for him. He had stayed at a respectful distance and monitored the bond carefully, and it luckily seemed like Tony was none the wiser.

From what he'd understood, Tony mostly felt embarrassed, somehow angry at himself, and somewhat panicked. A mix of all three had come from the bond in waves, up until that one moment when he opened the door. Loki had known he was coming, and he could have covered himself up – he had gathered that nudity was not something usually flaunted inside a bedroom unless it was for certain _specific_ purposes – but he had simply turned away from the door and stopped moving.

That is where his wishful thinking must have made him imagine unrealistic things. He had been so attuned to the bond and its previous mishmash of emotion that the sudden silence – the sudden lack of emotion – had his mind reeling. It only lasted for an instant, and just before surprise, shock, embarrassment and panic hit him like a tidal wave, Loki thought he'd felt a peak of lust course through him – lust that had not come from himself. That was what made him turn his head, to try and see Tony's face at that exact moment, and that had broken the spell and made him drown in the sudden onslaught of feelings that was followed by the slamming door.

After that, it was impossible to make sense of everything that came through the bond, and Loki had done his best to muffle it; he would have liked to look for more traces of what he had thought he felt earlier, but the intensity of what Tony was broadcasting made it somewhat hard to breathe, and he had been forced to block the bond the best he could. And even those efforts had not been enough for the increasing panic that overtook all other feelings coming from Tony's mind, and he had intervened.

He had tried to be gentle – he had been slightly irritated at the silliness of the situation in the beginning, but he had tried to be understanding afterwards. It was better to calm Tony down then to tell him how stupid he was being. He would get his peace of mind easier that way. But then Tony had lied, had tried to hide things from him, and had involved his annoyingly Jötunn skin in the conversation, so Loki had faked anger and worded everything so that the bond would not react and consider it all a lie. Surprisingly enough, it had worked – it was possible, it would seem, to make his soulmate believe something that was not entirely true. Tony's reaction had been priceless – his blushing cheeks had been most fetching – but Loki might have gone a bit too far. Now Tony seemed to be angry at him, which was rather a turn for the worst, given all that had happened this morning.

A fist banged on the bathroom door. "Oi! I don't know if you can hear me with your godly hearing, but you should wrap up your princess-y makeup time. Time to get down to breakfast." Tony's voice, though faint, sounded rather annoyed, but the fact that he had waited for him instead of going down directly seemed like a good sign. Loki quickly put his brush away and opened the door.

"The door was unlocked. There was no need to scream."

"So you _can_ hear through these soundproof walls! And these were supposed to be of great quality! I want a refund." Tony turned away and walked towards the bedroom door. "And I wouldn't have opened the door – just imagining the things I might have seen makes me shudder." And that comment sounded and felt as whole-hearted as they came.

Loki had not meant to, but he stopped in his tracks nonetheless. He felt like there was not enough air in the room. This was proof, was it not? Proof that he had misunderstood what he thought had been lust before – how could anyone want to see more of this body, be it on purpose or even by chance? Tony's appreciation for this skin's blue hue was merely born out of scientific curiosity, nothing more; it did not make him want to see parts of Loki's anatomy that were considered taboo.

A hand landed on his arm, and Tony suddenly seemed to be too close. "Woah no, no, no! Hey, no! I didn't mean it like that! I swear! I just thought, what if you were using the toilet or something. You'd have killed me for sure! Come on, I didn't mean anything like I'm sure you're imagining. I know what I said sounded awful, but I didn't mean that I hate seeing you naked or anything, 'cause I definitely don't." Tony's eyes widened, and his face started to redden. Loki finally breathed out. "Wow! That sounded so wrong. But I'm not lying, and you know it." Tony frowned. "And don't you dare laugh!"

Loki couldn't help it – he laughed. This situation was so ridiculous – _he_ was being ridiculous – and Tony's irritated face was making the whole thing even more absurd. The Midgardian hit him on the arm with what was probably a considerable amount of his strength, and it felt like nothing to Loki, especially when he was wearing his tough Frost Giant skin. His preposterous heritage; his probable exile; his weak, mortal soulmate; his now very much shortened lifespan; his stupidly unrequited growing feelings… He was Lady Fate's plaything and his life was a cosmic joke! It was all so ridiculous, if he stopped laughing he might cry instead.

"Oookay, awesome, now he's gone bonkers. Good job, Tony! You broke him!" His soulmate – ridiculous! – was muttering to himself, and Loki could barely hear him over his own ragged breaths and his peals of laughter. Even though his gaze had gone watery, Loki could see Tony's determined look, and that was all the warning he got. He was suddenly yanked forward by an invisible force, as if someone – _Tony_ – was trying to rip his soul right out of his body. His lungs refused to function for a good ten seconds, before he started to cough so hard he almost doubled over.

"What in Yggdrasil's name did you do that for?" he managed to get out in a half growling voice.

"I'm hungry. I want to go down to the kitchen. And I'm not taking a laughing madman with me. AKA the soul yanking. Don't look at me like that! It worked! You're all calmed down now!"

"Do I look calm to you?"

"Well, not when you're growling like a feral blue wolf, you don't. But I recon you'll stop that before we meet any other people, so that's fine." Loki took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Tony was right about one thing; he had to calm down, because in this skin it made him look more like a wild beast than a civilised being – and wasn't that the spitting image of the Jötnar he had been told about and that he wanted to avoid? "I'm guessing you want to be all pale and green-eyed before we go, so if we could get the whole 'taking my magical force' over with…"

Tony opened his arms like an invitation, giving access to the Arc reactor whose light barely showed through the fabric of his shirt, but that shone like a star in Loki's mind. He started to lift his hand – why would he not? Why would he not shapeshift back into his Áss form if given the opportunity? It was only logical. But Loki could feel Tony's reluctance; he was definitely unhappy with the situation. Was it because Tony preferred, for some strange reason – scientific curiosity, a voice whispered in his mind – to see him wearing his true skin?

"Perhaps later," Loki answered, surprising himself just as much as Tony, if the astonishment the bond communicated was anything to go by. There was also, though, a tiny spike of joy mixed in what Loki could feel, and that was good enough for him.

"All right then. Let's go get breakfast." And Tony led the way out the door.

* * *

Aaaand I managed to keep Loki all blue, hopefully for your pleasure *pats herself on the back* Don't worry Loks, that was a spike of lust indeed ;) And Tony, you keep blaming it on a glitch in the Matrix, dear; it will make you realising that Loki is different from anyone else all the more entertaining XD

I hope this chapter was to your liking, people! (I can't guarantee a new chapter before Christmas because I'll be snowed under by assignments, but I'll do my best.)

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	24. Chapter 24

Heya people! Long time no see! But still, here I am with a belated Christmas gift :) I hope you like it. It was damned difficult for me to write – I've got no idea why. I hope you'll appreciate the effort, though :p

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF:

 _Tony opened his arms like an invitation, giving access to the Arc reactor whose light barely showed through the fabric of his shirt, but that shone like a star in Loki's mind. He started to lift his hand – why would he not? Why would he not shapeshift back into his Áss form if given the opportunity? It was only logical. But Loki could feel Tony's reluctance; he was definitely unhappy with the situation. Was it because Tony preferred, for some strange reason – scientific curiosity, a voice whispered in his mind – to see him wearing his true skin?_

 _"Perhaps later," Loki answered, surprising himself just as much as Tony, if the astonishment the bond communicated was anything to go by. There was also, though, a tiny spike of joy mixed in what Loki could feel, and that was good enough for him._

 _"All right then. Let's go get breakfast." And Tony led the way out the door._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 24**

When they walked into the kitchen, all the other Avengers – minus Thor – and their official babysitter/freeloader Phil were eating and chatting amicably. Then someone noticed their presence, and soon all eyes were trained on them. Silence ensued.

"Erm, morning?" Tony said. What were they all being so silent for? It wasn't Loki's skin – they'd all see him like this before. So what— Oh. Right. Clint had seen them… doing whatever they'd been doing on the ground, and he wouldn't have interpreted that as the game of cat and mouse it had been. And he'd probably blabbed the instant he came down here. And now they were all looking like this at them.

"You're late," Phil said.

"Yeah, well, you could ask J.A.R.V.I.S. to wake us up earlier, you know. This was kinda last minute. I'm not a morning person, I need time. Then again, I don't see why we have to suffer through communal breakfast all the time. So in my opinion, we're not late. We're early." Phil didn't look amused – as if he was the boss around here! This was Tony's tower. Tony's tower, Tony's rules, right?

"What good does it do me to ask you're A.I. to wake you earlier if I have to send someone up to physically drag you out of bed?"

"What are you talking about? We were—" Not in bed. Wait a second! Did Clint not… Tony glanced at Clint, but Clint wasn't looking at him – he seemed to be in the middle of a staring contest with Loki. Well then, he'd just hope Clint told the others they were still in bed, and go with that. "I don't know what Clint told you, but we weren't sleeping or anything. Sure, we were still in bed and all, but we were talking. About important soulmate magic stuff. Not lazing about."

"We've been waiting for you. AKA you're late," Clint said, looking down at his spoon as he scooped up some soggy cereals. Tony wasn't going to argue with Clint – he'd done them the courtesy of not spreading false rumours around.

"Okay, fine, we're late. I haven't invented a time machine yet, so there's nothing I can do about it. You can all stop nagging."

"If they stopped nagging," Loki said, "how would you ever learn?"

"Gee, thanks! Aren't you the best soulmate anyone could ask for? All bitchiness and sarcasm."

"Why thank you, Tony. You're _acceptable_ yourself. After all, it could have been worse." And with a smirk, that princely bastard Tony was stuck with took a seat and waited to be served breakfast. Really, someone should teach him that food didn't make itself. And everyone expected Tony to do it, he was sure; well, he wouldn't do it today. Not with Loki throwing smugness at him through the bond in heaps.

He walked over to the counter, and put a mug under the coffee machine. Coffee. The nectar of the gods – real gods, not aliens. It wouldn't make the day great, but it certainly would make it better. "Loks." Loki had been in a staring contest with Clint again – what was it with those two? First Clint was a sassy arsehole, then a grudgingly accepting broody kid, then he was running away like a flustered chick, and now, what? Was he stuck in Loki's hypnotizing ruby gaze? At least Loki had the decency to look up when called. Clint just continued to stare. "PBJ – peanut butter jelly – okay with you?"

"If I must," Loki sighed, but Tony was pretty sure it was all an act. The bond wasn't closed off, and no reluctance flowed over from it.

"Well, guess what? If you want something else, you can get your scrawny arse off that chair and do it yourself."

"No thank you. And my 'arse', as you say, is not scrawny. You should know."

Oh, wow, okay. That was sooooo not acceptable. First, Loki should be banned from saying words like 'arse' in that accent of his, it was just lecherously indecent. It made Tony tingle all over. That was not something that should happen before coffee. Or anytime, for that matter. Not when Loki was the one who did that to him. And second, why the hell was that idiot spewing words that could be so awfully misinterpreted? Sure, it was true, Tony did see Loki's arse, but saying it out loud? People would just imagine all the wrong things.

"Sorry, my bad. I'm not that good at judging arse sizes from afar. And it's not as if I had any reason to look either." And he hadn't had a good reason. There had been no reason, and no functioning brain cells whatsoever actually, during those damning long seconds when he stared. He concentrated on finding the butter knife – where was that stupid thing again? – but he could feel, even without looking, that Loki's eyebrow was raised. Please don't let him make this worse. Please don't let him make this worse!

"Your 'arse size' judging skills are appalling then. We weren't that far apart; your view of my 'arse' should have been sufficient. And for future reference, let me tell you that my 'arse' is perfectly well-built and rounded. There is nothing scrawny about my 'arse'."

Oh. My. God! Tony couldn't stop himself from letting his new-found butter knife clatter on the bamboo cutting board and look at his soulmate with his mouth open. Was Loki doing it on purpose? Of course he was. He had to be. He had repeated the word 'arse' as many times as he could, no doubt about it. He even insisted on each occurrence of the word, enunciating them with painstaking precision. The bond was smirking smugly at Tony even though Loki's face was a perfect poker face. Yes, the bastard definitively knew that that _word_ , when coming from Loki's lips, was troubling him. A lot.

"You— You—" Tony didn't even know what he wanted to say exactly. His brain had deserted him, the traitor, and he was only left with a blank slate of nothing. All he knew was that his face was inappropriately hot.

"Are they always like that?" Phil was saying.

"As far as I've seen, yes," Natasha answered him, not even looking up from the magazine she was perusing.

"I've seen them being way worse," Clint added with a slight grimace on his face.

"Perhaps breakfast together really should be compulsory every morning." Phil was looking speculative now.

"Hmm, how would you justify it?" Natasha picked up her mug and sipped. "Training exercise? Team-building?"

"If you make it dinner instead of breakfast, I'm in. Their interactions can be hilarious," Bruce thought funny to add.

"We could always do breakfast _and_ dinner," Phil said, smirking.

"What about lunch?" Natasha added nonchalantly. Okay, that got Tony brain back in order fast, all right! As if he was going to subject himself to—

"Guys, don't be so mean." Oh, Steve, always the good guy. Standing up for the poor bullied people like Tony. "Dinner is enough." Right. Scrap that, Capsicle was just as much an arsehole as the others.

"You Midgardians really are strange creatures," Loki said from behind Tony. When the hell did he walk over here?

Tony finally, finally found his voice again. "No we're not."

"Please don't put you and me in the same category," Clint mumbled, but Tony heard him all the same.

" _We_ humans are not strange," he enunciated clearly in Clint's direction. "And you're the alien one here," he added, glancing over his shoulder at Loki.

"That is so. And as such, I can indeed judge Midgardians' strangeness, as I have met more 'aliens' than all of you combined." Loki sounded smug, but who could blame him? Tony would love to meet tons of aliens – as long as they weren't hostile. Who didn't want to get on a spaceship and boldly go where no man had gone before?

Bruce smiled in his tea. "I hope you're not judging all of humanity based on us, because we're not the most conventional sample."

"Hmm, not the most conventional." Loki stepped closer to Tony, almost touching his left side – AKA standing too close. "Like these 'PBJ' things you call breakfast, I assume."

"Er, no, that's pretty normal." All the bread was buttered now. Tony hoped this would be enough sandwiches… Yeah, fuck it, this was enough. If his gluttonous soulmate needed more food, he could do the work himself! "Why are you standing here anyway? Changed your mind about the PBJs?"

"No. You were simply taking too long."

"Taking too long? I'm so sorry, princess, but you won't find any servants waiting on you here. This is the last time I'm making you breakfast, so from tomorrow on you're on your own. I'm not some sandwich-making robot— Oh. Why didn't I think of that sooner? J.A.R.V.', put a PBJ-making robot on my project list."

"At the top of the list, Sir?"

"Of course." J.A.R.V.I.S. knew his priorities so well. He glanced at Loki again. "In the meantime, while there is no automated system made by awesome little me, you're gonna have to learn how to do it. It's not complicated, really. It's all about balance. Throwing on the right amount of peanut butter and all that. Here, I'll show you, and you do this one on your own."

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Sitting on a chair squeezed between Tony and Coulson, Loki was staring at his self-made sandwich. It did not look as neat as the ones made by Tony – not that those looked 'neat' by any definition, mind you – and he wondered if he should eat his own one first or last. If he ate it last, and it was not as good as the others, it would be a disappointing end to this meal. If he ate it first, it might not be the greatest start, but at least he would have Tony's sandwiches to wash away any unpleasant tastes it could have.

Tony had said it was all about proportions, but he did not have any tools to measure said proportions accurately. And as this was Loki's first time, he could not judge those proportions by eye alone. How different would the result be? He hadn't anticipated this level of involvement with his breakfast – he had simply followed his desire to be physically close to his soulmate. That, at least, had worked out perfectly. Their shoulders and arms had brushed repeatedly during the whole 'teaching' process.

Tony was debating wake up time with Coulson again between two bites of his breakfast, and Loki was not really listening. It was not as if he needed much more sleep than this – despite everything his magical core seemed to be healing nicely, and he could hear the reassuring sound of Yggdrasil thrumming lightly in the background.

He picked up one of the sandwiches Tony made, and bit into it. It had the same taste as the last time he ate it – which meant it was quite edible. When he finished it, he took the one he made himself. If he ate it in between the other sandwiches, there was no 'first or last' dilemma. He tore a hearty piece off with his teeth – teeth too pointy for this dish – and slowly chewed. Huh. The taste was rather close to Tony's. A bit more sugary perhaps; he must have added too much of that jam ingredient. But otherwise, it was all right for a first time, was it not?

Loki had almost finished all his food when he caught the word 'sceptre' coming out of Coulson's mouth. It seemed like they had been talking about it for a little while at least, and he'd missed most of it like the hungry fool he was – it was a bit too much like Thor's usual behaviour, and Loki grimaced. He listened to Coulson carefully while he chewed.

"I want you to make it your number one priority, Stark. That thing is dangerous, dangerous enough for Thor to want to take it back to Asgard, so I want it shipped off as soon as possible. Before Director Fury decides he wants to keep it for himself."

"But shouldn't we be helping with clearing the rubble and all that?" Tony asked between two sips of coffee.

"You made sure we found all the survivors already. The cleaning up can be done by others."

"You're right. We don't really have to be there. But you're still making the others do nice little walks around the block with a broom for publicity. Why not me? My suit is more like a vacuum cleaner. Flashier. Louder. More efficient."

"We're not leaving Loki alone with the sceptre" – as if Loki even wanted to – "and you need to be near him for the whole magic thing to work now, right?"

"Until his mana points fill up again, yeah. I'm like a temporary mana fountain." As always, Tony did not make much sense. Coulson, however, merely nodded.

"Exactly. You stay and help him."

Tony opened his mouth, closed it, opened it and said, "Fine," in a petulant tone. If Loki had understood correctly, he was to try and purify the sceptre from Thanos' influence _today_. He was not sure he could even do it. The Mad Titan used magics he had never actually studied and he had only a basic understanding of the spells that were fuelled by death. He would not go as far as saying that the thought of handling the sceptre again made him nervous, but his stomach tightened and he did not feel like eating the rest of his sandwich anymore.

He had barely put his hand down on the table when Tony grabbed it and squeezed gently. Loki turned his head towards his soulmate, but he was not looking back, and among the emotions that swirled around Tony's side of the bond, there were spikes of embarrassment he could feel. If Tony did not want something as _embarrassing_ as touching hands in public, then he should not do it. Loki tried to extricate his hand from under Tony's, but the stupid Midgardian just held onto it tighter. Loki was debating if he should just pull it away – he could remind his soulmate that their physical strengths could not even compare – or if he should just leave it – Tony was holding his hand, even if it was only in a misguided attempt to comfort him – when Tony stood up.

"Well, awesome breakfast, let's not do that again any time soon, thank you. You people have fun cleaning up. We're off to save the world from any more magic-influenced impending doom."

Tony's hand shifted so that he was holding Loki's in a way that looked like an invitation to follow him, so Loki sighed and stood up as well. Tony's fingers wrapped themselves around the back of his hand firmly, and they walked together towards the elevator. Loki did not look around, but he could certainly feel the curious gaze of the Avengers and their new manager.

The elevator doors closed behind them, and still Tony did not release his hand. They opened again to reveal the underground workshop, and still Tony did not release his hand. Loki was tugged along to the main working space, and only when they reached it did Tony release his hand. All that time the spikes of embarrassment had remained – even now, when they were not touching anymore Loki could feel them – and it made no sense at all.

"Okay, find yourself a chair or something – not that one though, that's mine – and I'll go get the sceptre. Don't worry, you won't have to touch it any time soon. I want to scan it first. And to do that I need to calibrate the scanner. That's going to take some time. So you might want to read some books or something. J.A.R.V.', can you send DUM-E round with his e-reader?"

"Of course, Sir."

Then Tony walked away, and Loki was left looking at the cluttered space surrounding his soulmate's desk. An engineer's desk. It was full of what Loki supposed were tools and pieces of machinery – the magicless science that Midgard preferred. Loki located a chair with coloured wires draped over the back and seat, and put them on the nearest surface before sitting down.

Tony came out of his vault at the other side of the room, the pulsing sceptre in his hand. Loki could not stop his muscles from tautening, and he monitored the bond attentively in case something unexpected happened. From here he could feel the malice of Thanos' taint come off the weapon in waves, even if he could not see the tendrils of the spell itself. Tony stayed far away, strapping the sceptre to metal rods that were sticking out of a massive metal counter. When he let go, the force of the taint ebbed away, and transparent walls came out of the base of the counter and surrounded the sceptre on all side.

Tony fiddled with some buttons before walking over and sitting in the chair he had designated as his. His desk had glass walls also; blue writing and schematics appeared the moment he touched it. He leaned back and said, "Okay J.A.R.V.I.S., throw all the scans you can think of at it, and I'll think of scans that don't exist yet." He swivelled his chair around until it faced Loki. "You said my Arc reactor contained some form of magic, right? What does it look like?"

"What does what look like?"

"Magic. The magic coming from my Arc reactor. If I can devise a scan that can see the magic from my Arc reactor, I should be able to see the magic from the sceptre, right?"

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. The magic from your Arc reactor is raw, unbridled, wild and harvesting its energy form a source I do not know. The sceptre has a powerful core I don't know the origin of, and Thanos' magic, a foul and oozing creeping spell, is based on some form of death magic I wouldn't be able to explain, as I have never studied it. The magic I use flows from the branches of Yggdrasil that span the Nine Realms, channelled through my magical core, and I weave it into spells. And Jötunn racial magic, as well as my shapeshifting, uses the magic that infuses all the cells of the body, using it in the same way as physical energy, mostly. Magic can take many different forms."

"All right. They're different, but they're still magic, yes? Those different forms of magic have something in common, I suppose. If I can start by scanning that, that what all magic has in common, then I could later calibrate it to fit the sceptre's magic."

"The sceptre's _magics_. It has two different sources."

Tony sighed. "Right. Well, let's start with something with just one source. Here," he said, handing Loki a glass case with a very different looking Arc reactor from the one he had seen before. 'Proof that Tony Stark has a heart' was written on it. What a preposterous message. "How's the magic in this one?"

Loki placed his hands on either side of the glass box, and closed his eyes. He opened his senses fully to the magical flow around him. The sceptre was like a dark presence, whispering in the background, beckoning to him; Yggdrasil's weaker reach here in Midgard was still detectable, trickling power drop by drop into his magical core, smoothing it, filling in the cracks; and the energy source between his hands hissed and lashed out like a tiny angry child.

"There is magic here, yes, but it is incomplete, juvenile, trying to bite and tear apart its confinement, but too weak and clueless to do it on its own."

"Juvenile. Uhuh. Well, this was my first Arc reactor, so it's not the best constructed, that's for sure. I made this in a cave with the crappiest tools possible." He took the box from Loki and put it down on his desk again. "You, my baby, saved my life more than once," he added, patting the glass.

"Really? I wouldn't have trusted such an ill-willed energy source."

"Well… the palladium core was poisoning me, that's true."

Ah, yes, poison. Tony did mention that before. Loki looked at that Arc reactor with new eyes now. "Yes. It does have a form of destructive intent."

"What, you think it's linked to the palladium? Like, a different element, a different magic? I mean, I'm guessing this baby" – he flicked his thumb towards his chest – "doesn't want to kill me, as I've had no problems so far." Loki could only stare at him expressionlessly. To say he'd thought his soulmate was a mortal genius. "That's your 'well duh' face, isn't it? Well, I can scan elements. Now I just need to find the magical thing they have in common. If I do a comparative study of an old and a new design of the Arc reactor…"

Loki couldn't hear the rest, as Tony started mumbling and merely breathing out the rest of his thoughts while he stood up and paced, and walked to vault again. He came out with two Arc reactors, one similar to the encased one, the other strangely flat but emitting the same signature as the one in Tony's chest. Both were placed in what Loki supposed were the devices that would permit the 'scans' Tony was looking for, after which his soulmate started a conversation that seemed to be half typed and half spoken in terms Loki did not understand, peppered with J.A.R.V.I.S.'s 'yes, Sir' and 'of course, Sir' in response.

Loki was at a loss what to do until the strange one-armed robotic servant came out of the elevator with the electronic library held in its mechanical hand, and as Tony did not seem to require his help in any way – why did Loki need to be down here in the first place if there was nothing for him to do? – he just continued reading random works of literature that the knowledgeable Artificial Intelligence had listed for him.

Loki had tuned out Tony's lively half conversation, until J.A.R.V.I.S. said the name of his soulmate's former lover. "Sir, you have received an e-mail from Miss Potts."

All work halted quite abruptly, and Loki looked up from the ramblings of a certain C.S. Lewis, straight into Tony's wide-eyed gaze. Slight panic reached Loki in tiny undulations on the surface of their connection, and Tony turned away, suddenly looking frantically for something on his cluttered desk.

"To your right, Sir, under the schematics for the robotic toaster."

Tony unearthed a 'tablet' device and turned the screen on. He breathed in. "Okay, J.A.R.V.', let's have it." The display changed to text, but Loki was too far to be able to read the message. Tony, however, was frowning more and more, until something that Loki could only describe as a 'sense of doom' reached him, and the grimace on Tony's face encompassed the bond as well.

That could not mean anything good.

* * *

Ooooh what does the message say, I wonder :p

I hope you all have a lovely end of the year :)

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	25. Chapter 25

Happy Valentine y'all! I managed to find a few minutes to finish this chapter today – that's what happens when you don't have to do couple-y things – so here's an update for all the grumpy single people, and the people who are sick of the commercial BS (and I'll be magnanimous and let all the lovey-dovey couples read this too XD). This is definitely not a Valentine themed chapter, but I still hope it's a balm to your love-sick or lonely hearts :p

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _"Sir, you have received an e-mail from Miss Potts."_

 _All work halted quite abruptly, and Loki looked up from the ramblings of a certain C.S. Lewis, straight into Tony's wide-eyed gaze. Slight panic reached Loki in tiny undulations on the surface of their connection, and Tony turned away, suddenly looking frantically for something on his cluttered desk._

" _To your right, Sir, under the schematics for the robotic toaster."_

 _Tony unearthed a 'tablet' device and turned the screen on. He breathed in. "Okay, J.A.R.V.', let's have it." The display changed to text, but Loki was too far to be able to read the message. Tony, however, was frowning more and more, until something that Loki could only describe as a 'sense of doom' reached him, and the grimace on Tony's face encompassed the bond as well._

 _That could not mean anything good._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 25**

When J.A.R.V.I.S. had announced the e-mail's arrival, there was only one thing Tony could think: not good. Usually if Pepper needed anything from him, or wanted to inform him of something, she'd either call, maybe text, or at worst tell J.A.R.V.I.S. to tell him whatever it was. And to remind him whatever he was forgetting – or was going to forget. An e-mail, though, that was very impersonal, especially for her. She was more of a 'direct' contact type of girl; face to face, phone calls or video chats, that how she preferred to interact.

So he already dreaded whatever it was that she'd written, but when J.A.R.V.I.S. made the message pop up on the tablet and he saw that the e-mail had been sent to his business account… That was her way of cold-shouldering everything but their business relationship. And it started with 'Mr Stark', just 'Mr Stark'; an Antarctica-level of cold shoulder right there. No, worse, a Jötunn ice-magic level of cold shoulder. And that was only the beginning. The rest was even worse.

 _Mr Stark,_

 _Attached are the authorisation documents that need to be signed, regarding the fundraising gala I have decided to organise in your name for the victims of what has been dubbed 'The Battle of New York'. Please sign them immediately._

 _The fundraiser will be held this Saturday, and you will attend. That is non-negotiable. I shall have J.A.R.V.I.S. send invitations to the other members of the Avengers, in case they wish to attend as well. As for your new plus one, if he were to come, make sure he dresses appropriately._

 _Sign the documents. Now._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Virginia Potts_

 _C.E.O. of Stark Industries_

Tony grimaced as the whole idea of a gala sunk in. Why? Why did he have to suffer through a gala? There had been days, long ago, when he had loved those stupidly posh events, if only for the bar and the girls that flocked to him like crazy pigeons to an abandoned baloney sandwich.

Now, though, he wasn't looking for girls; or for an evening out dancing – interspersed with business-oriented socialising – with Pepper like he had in the last couple of months. No, now he would have to flee hordes of stampeding women, because, well. He wasn't interested in a one-night stand right now. Not that he wouldn't be interested in sex, but he didn't really want to hop into bed with a stranger, and was still feeling very… confused by his sudden break up. And then there was the whole 'soulmate' thing. He had Loki now. Whatever crazy thing that meant.

And talking about Loki, the bond was unusually tense, vibrating with a number of feelings all on the 'wary' end of the spectrum. Tony looked up from the tablet and the email his eyes had been gliding over again without reading the words, to find Loki staring at his face with an almost worried expression. Right. Now that he thought about it, he might have been overreacting a little bit – it was only a fundraising gala after all, not a one-way ticket to the gallows – and Loki had only had his unprotected feelings to go on. No wonder he looked worried. And Tony really needed to get that bond-protecting shield for his mind.

"Uhm, it was a message from Pepper about a fundraising gala she's doing for the victims of the invasion. And I will have to go – not that I want to, but. It's in my name, so…"

"A fundraising gala?" Loki repeated, one dark eyebrow arching up his forehead.

"Yeah, it's, er… Like a ball. Where rich people go. And they give money for whatever the fundraiser is for. There's drinks, and music, and dancing, and women in ridiculous dresses. And usually a red carpet set up, and journalists that put your face on the front page of a magazine with ridiculous stories. Can't say I'm a huge fan anymore. I used to like the whole she-bang, but… Well, I have more interesting things to do, usually. But I'll have to go this time. Pepper said so. No way I can get out of it this time – she already hates me enough as it is."

His voice had turned pathetically sad at the end there, almost cracking, and Tony cringed internally. That was so not cool. Not that Loki wouldn't have picked up on his feelings through the bond, but still. And anyway, he was probably overreacting again. Pepper didn't really _hate_ him, right? She loved him! And then he broke her heart because, turns out he wasn't feeling the same way – though he didn't do it on purpose, how was he supposed to know 'love' and 'in love' wasn't the exact same thing? – and now she was super angry and distant. AKA the unpleasant email. It would get better. With time.

"You are hosting a ball in honour of the dead? It is a strange concept, to be sure."

"It's more a ball to help those still living. You know, raise money for those who lost everything, and money to rebuild and all that. The gala's just something to attract the rich; they get publicity out of it, they show the world how great and generous they are, and they try to outdo each other in the money-giving department. It's a win-win. There's money for those who need it, and a good time for the power-hungry wealthy arseholes."

"Do you include yourself among those power-hungry wealthy arseholes? You are one of the guests after all."

"I'm actually, supposedly, the host. But yeah, I used to be one of them. Now I'd prefer giving away half of my fortune just to not go to the gala part, but Pepper would kill me if I didn't go. And to be honest, having Iron Man go to the fundraiser could actually attract even more patrons, so… It's just too bad that I have to go in a regular suit instead of my armoured suit."

Loki looked pensive for a second. "A ball. I must say, I never truly liked them on Asgard, but as a prince I had to attend them all. I usually managed to be graciously asked to leave soon enough, though." Loki smirked.

"Oh? What did you do?"

"A few pranks were usually enough. Simple things, nothing spectacular. Like turning the ale salty, or making Thor trip during a dance so that his head landed on the bosom of his partner and he would have a shrieking woman scratching at his face. A few of those things were usually enough for people to get suspicious and Odin would ask me to retire. Without proof that anything was my fault, I might add."

"It was your fault, though. Right?"

"More often than not. Although I did get blamed rather often for things that were merely born out of people's own clumsiness."

"Do you have a way to be asked not to come at all?"

A smile played on Loki's lips again. "I'm afraid not. Even I do not have the power to make people less stubborn."

"Too bad."

Tony glanced at the tablet again, pulled up the electronic documents attached to the email and signed them, before putting it back on the desk. That was Saturday. No need to worry about it yet. He had more important things to do right now, like discovering a way to scan and detect magic. Tony checked the scans J.A.R.V.I.S. was doing of his Arc reactors on the screen, and went back to devising new ways of calibrating the material he had for new types of scans. It was possible that he wouldn't be able to make any progress at all with that – maybe he would have to construct a completely new scanning device. And as he didn't know what type of energy he was looking for exactly… It didn't matter, though. He'd find a way to do it someday; he was Tony Stark after all.

It took him half an hour to get a bit frustrated at his lack of progress. The problem was, he didn't really know what magic looked like. What type of energy it was precisely. How come no one on Earth seemed to know about it, while Asgardians and Frost Giants and all the other elves and whatnot had learned how to use it?

"You can see magic, right?" Loki didn't answer, and Tony had to repeat the question once Loki had finally lifted his nose out of his e-book. His soulmate was a true bookworm! Figures. The only thing missing were a pair of glasses. That would make the picture as cliché as could be. He guessed that Loki would never need glasses, what with the super healing power and magic and stuff. That was a pity, because he was sure glasses would make Loki look extra sexy. Oh, whoa, no! There was no 'extra sexy' as there was no 'sexy' to begin with! Nope. NOPE. Wrong train of thought. Back to the conversation at hand. Tony tuned back in and realise Loki was already speaking.

"— more like a feeling, though I suppose that the way I can visualise the magical energy in my mind could almost be called 'seeing'."

"Er… Right. And do you think that I could feel-see magic too? Or maybe you can show it to me somehow?" Loki frowned, and put his book on the nearest available surface. He stood up and walked over to Tony, towering over him. How could the bastard be so tall and lean and almost skinny, and still look so strong? Of course he was strong, freakishly so, but he shouldn't look it. Not with the pale skin and the shiny hair and the long limbs.

Loki extended his hand, and Tony took it automatically. The rush of the connecting bond, the warmth that filled him and the tingling that shot through his arm forced a breath into Tony's lungs, but Loki looked unfazed, and how was that fair? Also, they had touched not that long ago – the stupid bond shouldn't be this touch-starved already. How was he supposed to understand anything about magic if something as magically powerful as a soul bond made no sense whatsoever? Loki tugged, and Tony stood up. And of course they had to stand so close… Tony craned his neck up look at Loki's face.

"A person's magical core is usually placed behind the heart. It isn't physical, as magic itself does not exist as a solid element. Magic can be found in many things, in very small amounts, and it congregates in living things, mostly. Some beings can store more magic than others – Midgardians are not very magic-sensitive, most of the time. You, however, through your connection to me, and because you have been living with more magic than you were born with, might be able to feel magic better than your fellow Avengers."

"Better than Thor, even? I mean, his being from Asgard and all that."

Loki snorted. "Being better than Thor when it comes to magic is certainly not difficult."

"Okay. What do I do? Do I close my eyes and meditate?" Tony didn't like that idea at all.

"It would probably be difficult for you to find your own magical core because of the placement of the Arc reactor. You might, however, be able to locate mine, even though it isn't as 'bright', you might say, as it's supposed to be."

"Right." There was a beat of silence, then two, three. If Loki thought Tony knew what he was supposed to do now, he was sorely mistaken. Loki's bright blue hand went up, and he tapped himself on the chest with an almost black nail, on his sternum just below his clavicles.

"This is where my magical core is, and where my heart is when I am Jötunn. Place your hand here, and close your eyes." Tony brought his hand up to the place Loki had designated, but stopped an inch away from the black tee-shirt-covered chest. He glanced up at Loki's face, which was a mistake – there were ruby red eyes with deep, deep pools of black that he shouldn't be falling into right now – and he quickly closed his eyelids and pushed his hand against the cool fabric.

"Good. Now concentrate, not on what your hand feels, but what on your mind feels. Your hand is just an extension of your mind. Seek the source of the brightness. I will make my core 'pulse' more than it naturally does, for lack of a better word. Try to feel it. To see it in your mind's eye."

If Tony hadn't known magic was real, he'd have thought this was all a load of mantra-chakra-zen bullshit. Breathe in the light and all that. Make the bad thought flow out of your ears, or something. "Concentrate," Loki admonished him, and he tried to make his mind blank – fat chance that would happen.

"Guide your mind from your head to the palm of your hand. Let it flow along your veins to the very centre of your palm, and then beyond. Into me." Going down his neck, along the clavicle to the shoulder, down the bicep to the elbow, around the radius to his wrist, to his hand and the middle of his palm. And into Loki's chest. He'd prefer to get into Loki somewhere el— No! Nope! Not happening! He wasn't thinking that! Never thought that, even. Just a glitch of his genius mind! Magic. Yes, MAGIC! This was about magic.

Under his palm he could feel Loki's heart beating at a steady though somewhat rapid pace. He wondered if a Jötunn's heartbeat was always that fast. Through his other hand the bond was thrumming, and he could feel their connection, somehow. Maybe it was the same kind of connection he was looking for in Loki's chest. Only, their skins weren't touching, there was a shirt between them; a flimsy barrier that could possibly be as thick as a concrete wall for his magicless self.

So really, it was only logical. And it wasn't as if he wanted to or anything – liar, a little voice whispered in his ear. No, he didn't want to – _liar_ – this was for science! Or magic. Whatever. Tony took his hand off Loki's chest, and in a swift down-then-upwards movement, he'd lifted that tight black tee and slammed his hand on Loki's blue-skinned chest. Surprise boomed across the bond like the shockwave of an explosion, and Loki inhaled sharply, torso expanding under Tony's palm. Tony hadn't looked at Loki's face, gazing at the one spot where the magical core was supposed to be, but he could feel his soulmate's stare, even when he closed his eyes again.

This was better. There was the tingling, the humming of the bond, and when he moved along his arm with his mind, it was like he could almost see… something. Under his hand Loki's heart was beating relentlessly, and it was like a drum in his head; bo-boom-bo-boom-bo-boom, like the war drums of the Orcs of Moria. Or like the Jumanji board game. He could feel it going through him from head to toe. It was the strangest thing he'd ever felt.

And then there was something else. A warm cold. Or a cold warmth. He couldn't decide. It was like a small cold star, growing into a soothingly warm sun, then shrinking back into a star, and then a sun again. It was white light, blue light, fire, and none of the above; it wasn't light and yet it was, it wasn't there and yet it was, he couldn't _see_ it and yet he was. It wasn't feeling, it wasn't seeing, it was knowing. This was magic.

The moment he realised that, Tony's eyes flew open, and it was gone. He stepped back and wrenched his hand away, both hands, severing their connection so suddenly he stumbled and fell down into his chair – at least he didn't have to embarrass himself by falling on his arse. He stared wide-eyed at nothing, vaguely realising that Loki was going back to his own chair. He had seen _magic_. _Magic_! This was crazy! And it didn't even help him with his scans, because he couldn't say he really knew what he did to see it. He wasn't sure he'd ever be able to see magic anywhere else – the bond had obviously helped him.

"Okay. Right. Magic. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Not that helpful, actually, but at least I know I'm not a total muggle."

A soothing warmth reached him through the bond. "Who knows, you might even receive your Hogwarts letter one day."

Tony turned his gaze to Loki then, and the soft smile that met him was breathtakingly beautiful – it made his mind go blank for an instant, and it took his mind way too long to reboot. When it did, though, he understood what Loki had just said. "You mean I might be able to _d_ o magic one day?"

"Perhaps. If you are able to see it, you might be able to learn how to influence it's flow, and shape it into spells. It would take you a long time, but it isn't impossible. And you would have the best sorcerer in the Nine Realms as your teacher."

"Huh. I'd have to think about that." Tony turned back to his screen. "Okay, attempt number billion and one at scanning magic!" And he started tapping away again, lines of code flying from his fingertips.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Loki gripped the electronic book tighter and tried to concentrate on anything but the hand-shaped mark that burned his chest – the brand of Tony's presence that made him feel warm all over – and that moment of elation when he knew Tony had experienced magic – his magic – in the truest and most intimate way. The fact that his soulmate had a sensitivity to magic, maybe even enough to be able to learn the basics, and the fact that he might be willing to learn one day… The fact that Tony was a Midgardian and therefore did not have the same prejudices against magic as so many people he knew… Loki realised that perhaps his soulmate being from Midgard could have its advantages after all.

Loki blinked a few times and went back to the strange stories about the realm of Narnia. As reading stories of fiction was not the most productive of goals, he interspersed them with other books J.A.R.V.I.S. recommended, such as detailed tales about Midgardian – Earth – history, and the crude 'scientific' explanations of what mortals – humans – understood of the world. He was reading one such book when Tony jumped up with a loud 'YES!'.

"I think I've got something on the scans. Here, you see this line?" Loki put his book down and walked over, trying to resist leaning too close when he loomed over Tony's shoulder. He looked at where Tony was pointing, yet as he did not know what each line meant, it made no sense to him. "See this spike? I think this might be it. Does the magic pulsate in the Arc reactors? 'Cause I know you made your magic pulsate on purpose but… Does it pulsate on its own? 'Cause that's what I'm getting I think. Unless I'm wrong and this ain't it."

"It does pulse naturally indeed."

"Thank God! Okay, so that's the only pulsating that I've managed to measure – I mean, the energy that is coming from the Arc reactor is a direct current so the pulsating is an anomaly, but if that's actually the magical energy then… Yeah, then I can measure it, in a way. It still needs some tweaking of course, 'cause now we can barely see it but… I might be able to actually scan for magic! Ain't I awesome?" Loki remained silent.

"Of course you are, Sir."

J.A.R.V.I.S. sounded rather exasperated to Loki's ears, and Tony must have picked up on it too. "This is a breakthrough, J.A.R.V.'! You could at least pretend to be amazed by my genius!"

"I have done so too often already, Sir."

Tony gasped theatrically and placed a hand over his heart in mock distress. "You mean you have been faking your awe before? Pretending to admire your father's amazing work? Unbelievable!" Tony huffed and crossed his arms. "You are no son of mine!"

"Thank you, Sir. I will gladly seize this offer of independence."

Tony's lips twitched for an instant before huge smile broke out on his face. "As if you haven't done so already. You never listen to me anymore."

"Indeed I don't, Sir."

"I wise decision, to be sure," Loki added, starting to get bored of looking at the screen where incomprehensible lines formed over and over again in exactly the same patterns. "How does this breakthrough of yours help in analysing the sceptre's taint?"

"Hey, it helps! I just need to perfect it, that's all. Now we're only seeing broad strokes, but soon I'll have the tiniest details on there, you'll see." Loki hummed noncommittally and went back to his chair. "Just you wait," Tony added. "I'll have it done in no time."

It took Tony actually more than an hour, in which the robot-arm went away and came back with a very big pile of different variations of 'sandwich' food. Loki set a few aside for Tony and ate the rest – even those he did not particularly like, with a strange type of what might have been cheese. When Tony finally looked up from his typing and mumbling with an obnoxiously loud yell of 'EUREKA!', Loki walked over to him with the plate and its three sandwiches that he waved in front of his soulmates face until he picked one up.

"Shanksh," Tony said with his mouth full, and Loki's eye twitched. "Sho, jish ish whad magig looksh like."

The transparent screen was divided in different sets of lines, one groups flat and pulsating, another spherical and pulsating, but still Loki could not positively identify this as representing magic. This was like trying to write poetry with only numbers – a ridiculous exercise. This was not what magic looked like to him.

"I do not see how this is supposed to represent magic."

"Well, it's not— It's not the same as seeing-slash-feeling magic, for sure. This is merely a graphical representation of the energy itself. I think I get what you mean – this isn't magic, because magic seems almost… alive, in a way, and how do you just put _life_ on a screen, right? But magic is also an energy source, and that can be measured. Of course, I don't know if I can use this to check for spells or anything. I don't know how spells work anyway. But you said something about weaving, right? So I'm expecting certain energy patterns to represent certain spells. I don't know. This is just the analysis of the two Arc reactors. They're different, see?"

Tony made two other sets of lines appear, and indeed they were different from the first one – more erratic, with sharper spikes. "This is the old, palladium reactor," he said, pointing at the latest lines. "And this is the new one," he added, pointing at the sets of lines that had been on the screen first.

Loki hummed noncommittally yet again. Tony looked up at him from his chair, bending his neck back almost as far as it could go, and Loki stood up straighter so that their faces – and temptation – weren't so close. Tony stared unblinkingly at him for a few seconds before looking back down and biting into his sandwich. "J.A.R.V. , holos pleash."

A few tables away, around the two Arc reactors that were suspended in their scanning devices, flowing criss-crossing lines appeared, forming spheres that encompassed them and that shrunk and grew like a breathing entity. Tony stood up and approached them, and Loki followed. Both spheres were different – while the new, flat Arc reactor beat faster, the surface of the sphere was smoother with less erratic spikes. The old Arc reactor's sphere however was sluggish but deformed and wilder, peaks appearing almost aggressively on the surface.

"I kinda feel like this resembles the way you described the differences in their magic, don't you?" Tony asked while gesturing at the two light-giving devices.

"Perhaps," Loki answered after a minute.

"There's no need to doubt my genius, darling. I know when I'm right," Tony said with a smirk.

Loki ignored his soulmate's antics and watched the pulsing representations of magic. He put his hand closer to the old Arc reactor, intending to feel it's magic more clearly. When his hand entered the scanning area, though, he stopped short when tiny vibrating points of light surrounded his hand like a glove.

"Oh. Uhm, that was unexpected. I wouldn't advise putting your hand in a scanner without knowing the possible physical consequences, first off. Not that I think that this should be dangerous or anything, but next time ask, okay. Even though you may be totally fine, with your alien strength and all that, better be safe than sorry. This is interesting, though. Are you recording this, J.A.R.V.'? It's not calibrated correctly, but we're still picking up some of your magic. Awesome!"

Loki glanced at Tony before inching his hand forward. The moment one of the dots that represented his magic touched the exterior of the pulsating sphere of the old Arc reactor's magic, a big sharp spike of energy erupted from the surface and seemingly passed through his hand mere moments after he felt a similar spike of angry magic lash out at him. "Oh, wow!" was all Tony seemed able to say.

Loki pulled his hand out and massaged the tingling blue skin of the palm and back of his hand. "It appears that you have indeed managed to make magical energy visible." An enormous grin split Tony's face in two and bright and warm joy radiated from the bond like a blooming star. Loki couldn't look at Tony's delighted face for too long; even though he should feel delighted that he had managed to paint such an expression on his soulmate's face with only a few words of hidden praise, it only seemed to bring him pain – this was not at all the reason nor the situation in which he wanted such delight to be appearing on Tony's features.

He looked at the Arc reactors again, and thought of a question to distract himself. "Why does your current Arc reactor look more like this one," he said, designating the old aggressive Arc reactor, "while being actually more like this one," he said, designating the flat Arc reactor with its triangle and its steadier rhythm.

"Oh, well, when I made the new Arc reactor design when I created the New Element, I made the new design sleek and flat because I could, and also because it's way easier to change if needed. But it turns out that it wasn't that comfortable. I don't know if it's just the empty space that's left in my chest or the lack of direct connection, or both, but I ended up making a design that's a bit between the old one and the new. Get the best of both, you know."

"I see." Not that Loki understood what Tony meant exactly, but a lack of reply just wouldn't do.

"Right. Well, I'll try to make the scanning and stuff work on the sceptre now. Trying to discern two magical signatures coming from the same source, that's gonna be a challenge."

"I shall wish you good luck, then. You will need it," Loki said before walking back to his chair and his many books.

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence!" Tony grumbled before starting up an incomprehensible conversation with J.A.R.V.I.S. about frequencies and energy emissions. Loki tuned him out.

* * *

No cliff-hanger this time ;) The last cliff-hanger was a mean one, because there was no real 'doom' approaching and Tony was just being a drama-queen XD What do you think? Are you up for a fundraising gala soon? (Though I say soon, but it might take a couple of chapters, AKA a few months, since life is absolutely hectic at the moment.)

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	26. Chapter 26

Hi there! It's been quite a while, hasn't it? So sorry about that, life has been absolutely hectic. On another note, did you notice we went over the 100k last time? Ain't that amazing? That's gotta be the slowest slow burn I've ever encountered XD (Sorry to all those who would like to see things _move along_ ).

Also, what did you think of Infinity War? I won't say what I thought about it, apart from the fact that I'm very happy that fanfiction exists because then all the characters we love can still be safe and sound ;) Let them do whatever they want in canon, I live for fanfiction anyway :p

Now, let's get on with the story. I hope you won't mind the magical (and other) mumbo jumbo too much XD

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF:

" _Right. Well, I'll try to make the scanning and stuff work on the sceptre now. Trying to discern two magical signatures coming from the same source, that's gonna be a challenge."_

" _I shall wish you good luck, then. You will need it," Loki said before walking back to his chair and his many books._

" _Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence!" Tony grumbled before starting up an incomprehensible conversation with J.A.R.V.I.S. about frequencies and energy emissions. Loki tuned him out._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 26**

After his initial success with the Arc reactors, Tony had been hyped up and full of confidence – yes, you could as well say it; he'd gotten cocky and thought that scanning the damn sceptre's magic couldn't be _that_ difficult. So of course, everything was difficult, and nothing was going the way he wanted.

He had worked all afternoon but he hadn't gotten better than the initial blur of lines that indicated the presence of magic, and that was totally useless. He couldn't distinguish the two different sources. So instead of bashing his head against the screen out of sheer frustration, he'd gotten up to stretch his legs and made himself a coffee. And he had done that again and again every ten minutes or so. Then he switched tactics and got up to jog – though the only reason he did that was to empty his bladder post-haste.

He could detect magic, but that was it. Sure, that was awesome and all, but it wasn't good enough. The frustration of his failures alone was giving him a headache, and he was ready to give up for now and call it a day. He could start again in the morning. Maybe he'd even dream of some new idea or something.

Tony walked over to his Arc reactors. They were still inside the scanners, and the scanners were still active, showing the pulsing magic that these energy sources created. He'd left it running for inspiration, to remind him of this milestone while he worked on the sceptre. But if he was going to stop working for today, he was going to have to put everything away. With so many people in his tower, and with some of the minor security features still not repaired after the battle, he definitely wasn't going to leave anything of importance out in the open.

His hand hovered over the off-switch of the scanners, but he hesitated. All right, so this was really dumb, but he was curious. Who could blame him? And anyway, genius scientists did it all the time. Heck, he'd done it more than once before. He could risk a finger or two. It hadn't looked like it harmed Loki, so maybe it wouldn't be harmful to humans either. Or he was going to give himself cancer or something. But hey, he was doing it to improve science. And to quench his curiosity. Mostly that.

Before he could reassess the risk like a sane person, Tony put his left hand in the closest scanner, next to the New Element reactor – he wasn't going to put his hand anywhere near his first Arc reactor now that he'd seen how… nasty and aggressive it seemed. He'd always been fond of his first Arc reactor, because it had been his first of course, and because it had saved his life more than once, and it was awesome because he'd built it in a cave. Now that he'd witnessed the magic that was inside it though, he felt kind of sick at the thought of _that_ ever having been so close to his heart.

So instead, he chose to trust his newer Arc reactor, even though Loki hadn't put his hand near it so Tony had absolutely no proof that the reaction wouldn't be the same. Not that the reaction was what interested him per se. He just wanted to see if the scanner could detect any magic coming from him.

His hand felt warm, and not in a good way; the scanner wasn't generating heat, so he shouldn't be feeling like his hand had just bought itself a trip to the Sahara. AKA this was not a good idea. Still, he was already doing it, so he could at least leave his precious fingers in there long enough to try and see if anything magic related happened.

He peered at his hand, getting his face closer to try and glimpse at least a trace of anything like what he'd seen when Loki had interacted with it, but there were no tiny points of light hovering above his skin. Well, he was no wizard, so that was to be expected, but it was also a bit disappointing. Loki said he had magic, but maybe he didn't have enough for it to register here.

Tony inched his hand closer to the Arc reactor. It was kind of stupid, really, the amount of trepidation he felt now that he could see the magic; now that he had experienced for himself how alive magic could be, he felt like the Arc reactor was more than just an energy source. And one of them had proven to be kind of feral – towards Loki at least. He could understand the feeling, his soulmate could be rather irritating sometimes, but still.

His fingers got closer and closer to the wriggling sphere of lines, but nothing happened. His fingers passed through, and nothing happened. Tony was going to pretend that he wasn't disappointed. Nope, not disappointed at all.

He went to grab the Arc reactor to take it out of the scanner and be done with it, and the instant his skin touched the glowing blue surface, it happened. The lines of the sphere erupted outward where his hand had punched through it, neatly encircling his wrist like a bracelet in an excited fistfight of thin lines, and dots like panicked ants danced over the skin and up his arm until the point where the scanner ended.

Magic. This Arc reactor was giving him its magic! How awesome was that! "Good boy!" Tony whispered, though even that wasn't silent enough – he could feel a bubble of amusement ripple through the bond. Tony looked up and met Loki's amused gaze. For a fraction of a second he hesitated between frowning at his soulmate and ignoring him, but if you were caught doing something silly, you could as well do what you really wanted to.

Tony stuck his tongue out in a nice representation of his ever-present inner child, and his jaw nearly smacked against his knees when Loki – millennia old alien and all – did the exact same thing back, then smirked. Tony's stomach did a strange little double salto – the shock, no doubt – and he stared at the kind of regal and kind of stuck-up looking Jötunn who was giving him a mischievous grin with a hint of pointy-ish teeth.

Somehow, it made sense. A little bit. Lady Fate wasn't completely full of shit after all. Maybe, somehow, they were kind of compatible. Maybe they were kind of made for each other, however that worked. In a potential 'best friends' kind of way, of course. It seemed crazy. But somehow, Tony kind of liked the idea of having someone who got him, and someone who could be just as childish, and just as crazy as him, and just as intelligent as him, with him until he died. After he died, even. That was kind of… Wow. Yeah, there was no other word for it. Also, on another note, the colour of Loki's tongue was fascinating – he wouldn't mind seeing more of it. For a totally, completely, utterly scientific reason of course.

Tony forced his eyes to look back at his hand, and he detached the Arc reactor from the scanner and deactivated both of them. He took a deep, stealing breath and took hold of his first Arc reactor, but of course nothing happened. He'd never felt any energy coming from it apart from its characteristic hum, and nothing was different now. If the magic was in any way nasty, he couldn't feel it. Not yet, anyway. Maybe someday he would be able to.

Tony walked towards his safe, said the password and let J.A.R.V.I.S. scan him. The door opened smoothly and he entered, making a bee-line for the compartment where he stored all his Arc reactors. It clicked open at his command, and locked itself after he closed it again. Ah, the wonders of technology. That at least he understood perfectly. If only magic could be as easy as programming was.

Wait. Programming. What if he tried to look for something like a program? Not that that made much sense, but… Perhaps a spell could be considered coding, in a way. Loki had called it weaving and patterns and all that, but maybe… Tony rushed back to his desk in a half-jog, and he could feel Loki's raised eyebrow all the way back to his seat.

"A new idea?" Loki asked. That obviously didn't require a response; Tony's reaction was quite clear, wasn't it? He pulled up the sceptre's scan again and started typing strings of code, mind bursting with sudden inspiration. He shut out the fluttering feelings coming through the bond – amusement, curiosity, and something like fondness – and listened to the little explosions of insight that came to him in a rush.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Loki's stomach grumbled silently, and he admonished it just as silently. He was not about to interrupt Tony who seemed to be in the middle of an epiphany of sorts to ask him about going up to dinner – he reckoned it should be about time soon. Not that he was in any way eager to join the rest of the Avengers, but he would suffer through it if it meant food. However, he would not go up there alone, without Tony to serve as a buffer, so he would just have to wait for now. At least until he found out where this new bout of research was heading – progress or failure – by reading his soulmate's muddled feelings.

Loki went back to the book he was reading, some sort of introduction to Midgard's take on astronomy, and tried to concentrate on the text. It was not that the subject was not interesting – it was in fact fascinating, learning about the primitive way Midgard thought about the universe, and seeing the progress they had made on the subject in such a short amount of time.

It was just that he had been reading all day, and he longed to do something else, though he did not know what. He could explore the tower, or the sections J.A.R.V.I.S. gave him access to at least, but that meant potentially encountering the Avengers. He could explore Tony's workshop in more detail, but as most of it was either empty or piled with scraps and technology unknown to Loki, he did not see how he could be entertained for long. And he had only access to one half of the workshop anyway; he refused to get any closer to the sceptre right now. And no, that did not make him a coward in any way.

Loki's wandering gaze found Tony's 'tablet' device, not unlike his electronic reader but bigger, with the surface of the switched-off screen reflecting the overhead lights. He glanced at Tony, still fully immersed in his work, and stood up to retrieve it. The screen flared to life when he held it up the way he had seen Midgardians do, and Loki looked at the multi-coloured mess that confronted him. In front of a picture of Iron Man in flight were little square images of varying colours, with titles of what they probably represented underneath, but most of them made no sense whatsoever.

If there was any logic to this – which, given that is was made by Midgardians, was definitely not guaranteed – these images were buttons to access different functions of the device. Perhaps one of them led to the message Tony had received earlier, or perhaps one led to the information platform of the 'internet' he had heard much about, but none of the titles he saw seemed to lead there.

One of the titles caught his eye, and he hesitatingly touched the image above it. Surely there was no way to break the device by using its innate features. Some images flashed on the screen, a white one with red swirls and the word 'Rovio', and strange colourful creatures that surely could not exist on this Realm or beyond. Another image appeared, with more creatures, what possibly represented eggs, and the word 'play'. Loki stared at the screen, eyebrows twitching, while an annoying sound – he certainly could not call this music – came from the device. What was the purpose of this… function? This 'play', this strange sound and colourful art might suggest a game for children. Why would Tony ever have such a thing on his—

"J.A.R.V.', be a dear and whip up a Black Sabbath playlist," Tony mumbled, still peering at his screen.

The loud noise that invaded the workshop made Loki jump and almost break the delicate tablet in his hands. He remained frozen in place for a moment, letting this new… information wash over him – and probably drill holes in his eardrums.

Tony's eyes were suddenly on him. "J.A.R.V.', tone down the music," his soulmate said – or mouthed, Loki could not hear him over the ruckus. The volume diminished to a more palatable level. "Er, sorry. I should have warned. And remembered the super hearing and stuff."

Ah. Indeed, Loki's shielding of the bond had almost disappeared in his surprise. And he had somehow communicated, if not a thought, at least an impression well enough for Tony to notice it at the height of his concentration. This level of connectedness was getting alarmingly close to actual wordless communication – and one that did not need the slow and uncomfortable Morse Code. That was definitely not something Loki could appreciate at this stage of their rather too distant relationship.

"D'you need me to get rid of the music entirely, or…"

Tony wanted this strange Midgardian music, obviously. He might even… Loki concentrated on the bond. Loki got the impression that Tony might even need this music to help him focus. Loki cocked his head. This growth of the bond might not be entirely useless after all; if he was the one getting information from Tony, of course.

"You may keep it," he answered. At this volume it was not harming him, and he would be able to ignore it easily enough. He had managed to ignore things much louder and much inaner – Thor – for centuries.

"Awesome! Merci, chéri!" And with that peculiar moniker – then again, this seemed normal coming from Tony Stark – his soulmate went back to his work.

Loki looked back down at the tablet. The strange, childish game-looking feature was still displayed. And no, it was not surprising at all to find this on Tony's device, now that he thought about it. Loki touched the word 'play', and the screen went to several options, all numbered, and most of them half-hidden behind something Loki believed was called a 'padlock'. All but one was locked; '1. Poached Eggs'. Then, again, locks and a number '1'. Loki sighed. This was getting tedious.

A new image appeared, displaying the colourful creatures, an empty nest, and green beasts with eggs and a Midgardian pan; possibly a crude way to tell the story of what happened to the colourful creatures – if these were birds, like the title of this feature suggested, then Loki wondered where on Midgard these poor things may be, that he could put them out of their misery. One thing was clear, however: these 'birds' had every reason to be 'angry'.

A new image, and Loki frowned. He waited, and as nothing happened, he touched the screen. The incomprehensible image disappeared, showing him some kind of possible representation of ground, grass and sky, with the red 'birds' on the left, the green beast on the right. The device's music was just as grating as Tony's, and Loki tried to tune it out. The red 'birds' hopped up and down. The green beast blinked. Nothing happened.

"Mr Friggason." J.A.R.V.I.S.' voice came out of the tablet itself. "If you would allow me to explain?"

It was not as if Loki had anything better to do at the moment, so he acquiesced. Apparently, the green beasts were pigs and they had to be killed being hit hard enough by either the constructions they lived in, or the Angry Birds that had to be flung at them. One simply had to choose the right angle to 'throw' the bird at, and the right timing to release the special attributes of the non-red ones. Loki sped through the game with ease, and after a while he was introduced to other simple games such as Fruit Ninja or Cut the Rope or Criminal Case – Midgardians were certainly inspired when it came to finding ways to waste the little time they had.

"You're pretty good at this for an old guy," Tony suddenly said from beside him, and Loki did his best not to show his surprise. This last game – Angry Birds Space – was more engrossing than he would have thought. He had not even noticed that Tony's music had stopped, or that his soulmate had moved at all. Midgardian entertainment was deviously treacherous in its distraction.

Tony's grin was very wide and restless energy was crackling all over the bond. "I think I've got it, by the way. The difference between Thanos' spell and the sceptre's own magic. Wanna take a look?"

Loki put the device down and stood up, more by reflex than by true agreement, and when Tony started walking towards the weapon, he did not follow. He could not follow. Dread filled him at the mere idea of getting close enough to the Mad Titan's foul magic to be able to analyse it. It was pathetic. Tony would be there – their soul bond should protect them from the sceptre's ill intent. And yet he still could not make himself move. He was the most pathetic being in all the Nine Realms.

"Hey." Tony's hand landed on Loki's upper arm, and their connection was immediate and as breath-taking as always. Through it his awareness of Tony's trepidation and excitement increased tenfold, and a feeling of recklessness – something akin to 'let's confront the enemy and deal with whatever shit they throw at us' – seeped into him from his soulmate's mind. Tony grabbed his hand and tugged. Loki looked at their touching skins, the deep blue and the soft beige, so unrelated in colour and yet so complementary in size, and let himself step forward. His eyes did not leave their clasped fingers until Tony stopped and they were there.

Loki could feel Thanos' magic react to his presence even before he looked up, trying to call to his bruised and depleted core, whispering sweet promises of power. The display that surrounded the sceptre reacted accordingly, swarming more of its lights in his direction, just like the taint Loki knew was turned towards him, like a predator ready to pounce. Tony squeezed his palm in response.

"Behold: two different magical signatures coming from the same artefact. When I looked at them as different energy sources I couldn't distinguish them because I don't have the tech, and as you can see they are embedded in each other – or rather, the blue one is embedded in the yellow one – so that didn't get me anywhere, but when I looked at it as code – like, you know, woven spells or whatnot – I found these two different signatures. The central one looks a bit like an OS which would make the blue one some nasty-looking program, and complex as fuck, but…"

Loki stopped listening when it seemed like Tony was not going to stop – and the Midgardian terminology did not interest him at the moment. This display was very peculiar and did not resemble even remotely any kind of spell structure he knew, and yet in some way it still made sense, somewhat. And that central structure made of golden yellow light… Loki had always had an inkling that the sceptre could be more powerful than he had been led to believe, and he knew Thanos' magic was built upon an artefact that fuelled it, but this… Merely looking at the breathing lights gave him the impression he could almost feel the true nature of the magic hidden in the sceptre's core, and it was brighter than anything he'd ever felt.

"Crazy, right? It almost looks… alive. I mean, yeah, sure, it's magic, it feels alive, yada, yada, but this looks like some next level shit. Not that I know what spells usually look like, but. If I were to compare this to any type of programming I know, I'd say this is A.I.-level coding. Especially the yellow bit, that thing looks otherworldly. I mean, it is, literally, but it's also fucking awesome. The blue though… I mean, for human standards it's amazing, but in comparison to the yellow centre… It's like surrounding a diamond in glass, seems a bit like a waste."

Loki hummed in answer. A diamond in glass. The waste of a beautiful gem, unless one did not want said gem to sparkle and shine in any light, but only with the light one allowed it access to – by controlling the opacity of the glass. Thanos' taint had a double purpose – to control the amount of contact the user had with the central core, and to control the amount of contact the central core had with the user.

"So, if the centre of this thing has a specific purpose – a will, if we consider it kind of alive – and the spell is controlling its range of action, then I guess we can consider the spell like a virus." Either Tony had come to the same conclusions as Loki, or he had gleaned the information through the bond. Their connection seemed to shine brighter in front of the darkness emanating from the sceptre. "And the infection that cripples the body has its own agenda, like spreading and shit. That's what it did, right? It 'spread' onto you and then you helped it get to Clint and it controlled you all. But you not as much as it did Clint, maybe because you were the primary host, or because you've got a fancy magical mind or something."

"Perhaps."

"Right. We've got to beat the virus then."

"It would seem so." _If_ they wanted to relieve the sceptre of its taint. And _if_ it was even within their power to do so. Loki certainly wasn't eager to try.

"We gotta try something at least. Well, I say we, but I'm not sure I can help. I don't know the coding language, so I can't hack into it. You're the one with the knowledge. And sure, you've got a low battery and all, but with me as a charger, I'm sure well manage to at least cripple it, right?"

Tony was grinning at him, Loki could see it from the corner of his eye, but his own gaze remained trained on the spherical display. While this representation of magic did give him some new insights, it did not procure a true understanding of the type of magic the taint's spell was made of, or how to counteract it. Yet, insane as it may be, he wanted to at least try. Tony's enthusiasm was infectious.

"You have an idea, don't you?"

"Not necessarily. I'm not certain how to proceed exactly, however—" Loki stretched his free hand forward, inching it towards the gleaming blue display. When the taint's magic lashed out with its malevolent tentacles, the display whipped forward as well, trying to grasp his limb with little glowing cubes.

"That's quite the aggressive magic Lego we've got here!"

Loki withdrew his hand. While the appearance of the spell differed in his mind's eye and in the air before him, there were some similarities he understood. And the one thing he could see on the display, but not with his magical awareness, were the connections the spell had to the sceptre's core – the taint he could feel bubble and undulate around the core was so thick that he had never laid eyes (or his senses) on the core itself.

"This might be a ridiculous idea, but what if we cut the spell at its roots? Cut out the rootkit? I mean, there are those links there, those tendrils that connect it to the yellow core, yeah? If we cut it loose, can it, you know, die? Like cutting the connection to the server? Pulling the plug?"

"That is not how spells work."

"Okay. Guess that's just how it looks like to me."

And even though it went against everything Loki knew, it did seem like that to him too, now that he saw the magic represented in this unnatural way. Was this representation wrong? Or was Loki's perception of spells – as well as Asgard's, the Nine Realms', and all the places beyond he had seen – wrong? Or did it only concern the type of magic Thanos had used? Either way, it was worth a try. If only he knew how.

"I would like to see my own magic revealed in your constructions of light." Perhaps that would help him somehow understand this all better.

Astonishment crossed Tony's features. "You want to scan yourself? Don't mind if I record that," he grinned. "I can set up the other scanner in the same way I did this one and we'll see what happens I guess."

Tony's hand untangled from Loki's before he realised his soulmate's intentions, and the reaction was immediate. Blue light erupted from the display like the gaping maw of a surging beast and charged in Loki's direction; a cornered animal's vicious retaliation. While the light stopped at the display's limits, hitting an invisible wall, the taint's magic continued its advance in ever thinning tendrils, trying to reach Loki's skin and pierce him straight through the heart.

It all happened so fast – Loki stood frozen in place, eyes wide and breath caught, unable to make himself move. It was ridiculous. He should have had sufficient time to step away; everything was moving so very slowly. And he himself was slowest of all.

Thanos' magic was only a dozen hairs thick and half a breath away from his chest. The Mad Titan was going to fight for his mind again, and he had none of his magical reserve to fight such an assault. This was it. This was the end.

* * *

Ooooh look at that, a cliff-hanger! No worries, this is not the end ;) And I swear I didn't intend to leave you with a cliff-hanger at all, but then the Mad Titan's magic got a hold of me and this happened. I didn't want to bring Avengers 3 into this, but my suffering because of it might have high-jacked my subconscious and made me lash out at the very last moment. No worries though, I'll fix it. I guess. Somehow… :p

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	27. Chapter 27

So, yeah, hi, it's been a while. Here's the next chapter of my never-ending fic. And, erm, yeah, I know I left you on a cliff-hanger and all, and that was not nice, and I tried to update as soon as possible but well… Here we are. I apologise for the wait. This chapter just didn't want to be written. And it's not even what I wanted it to be – expect a lot more magic mumbo-jumbo. But hey, on the upside, more than half of the next chapter is already written, so there's that. Meanwhile, enjoy, I hope.

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF:

 _It all happened so fast – Loki stood frozen in place, eyes wide and breath caught, unable to make himself move. It was ridiculous. He should have had sufficient time to step away; everything was moving so very slowly. And he himself was slowest of all._

 _Thanos' magic was only a dozen hairs thick and half a breath away from his chest. The Mad Titan was going to fight for his mind again, and he had none of his magical reserve to fight such an assault. This was it. This was the end._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 27**

The instant Tony let go of Loki's hand he knew he'd made a huge mistake; the sudden explosion of light was nothing compared to the tsunami of dread that washed over him. He moved without thinking and dove back towards his motionless soulmate. His fingertips slid against the blue skin of the arm first, and the connection rushed back in place, bright and steady. His palm was next, and Loki's alarm, fear and hopelessness was almost overwhelmingly blinding. With the momentum the rest of his body followed, and his chest hit Loki's bicep hard enough to make his soulmate wobble slightly. Then everything was still.

It was as if time had stopped. Or like time had stopped around them – Tony could feel his own heartbeat tap-dance in his ribcage just fine. Loki's heartbeat was like frightened doe's. Loki's heartbeat? Yeah, he definitely knew what Loki's heartbeat was like right now. Just like he could feel-see the warm-cold-warm thing of magic all around them, in them, through them, being all magic-like and confusing. Except in that one spot where it wasn't flowing and wavy and pulsing. That one spot where the _other_ magic was.

Tony could see-feel-know Thanos' spell now; ugly dark purple bubbling tentacles that spouted from the sceptre and that he somehow could almost smell – and you guessed it, it frigging _stank_! One of those tentacle things was extended, getting thinner and thinner the further it was from the source, and in that one spot where it wanted to touch Loki's chest, in that spot where the magical core was, the soothing magic of the bond spat and crackled and sizzled and threw blue-white sparks everywhere. It was deafening and silent at the same time; angry, protective, an explosive defence.

Tony only hesitated for half a second – it did look pretty not-good – but there was nothing to it; there was no way he could move Loki by force, so he'd just have to stop the source of what made his soulmate so stupidly motionless and blanked out. He wedged his hand in the very centre of the invisible magical battle, palm on Loki's chest and the back of his hand the new source of the spitting blue sparks. Loki breathed in, pushing Tony's hand further towards the twin clashing magics when his chest expanded – there was panic screaming across the bond, but it was also being smothered by the fluffy blanket of relief – and Loki took just the teeny tiniest step backwards, taking Tony with him. Magic disappeared from the world again.

It felt like Loki's heart was pounding against his palm, beating at a crazy rhythm, but Tony knew it was slowing down. He couldn't see-feel magic anymore – why the hell were his magical-seeing abilities so random? – but he knew they were safe from the sceptre right now. Not that Tony had any intention of letting go yet. He leaned back just enough to loop his right arm around Loki's, and with his palm stuck to his soulmate's chest he half crab-walked them to the nearest walkway between worktables. Only then did he remove his left hand from Loki's heart, tightened his grip on Loki's arm, and marched them back to his main computer in the middle of the workshop.

Then came that awkward moment when everything was silent. Usually that was the moment when in movies people would spring apart, perhaps clumsily apologise, and everything would be back to normal. Really, that's what Tony should do – minus the apologising part – but… He didn't want to. Or maybe it was Loki who didn't want to. He wasn't sure. Everything seemed more muddled than usual.

Still, not letting go wasn't the same as not stepping back. So he stepped back. And looked up – because let's not forget Loki was as stupidly tall as any other alien – and there was his soulmate's face. All azure, and sapphire, and navy both on the genetical tribal-like ridges and the lips; lips that were parted to accommodate Loki's quick breaths, showing the sharp-looking, slightly bluish and slightly translucid teeth; and Loki's wide, wide eyes were the blood-red seemed to go on forever, darkening around the pupil in the most fascinating iris—

God damnit, no! Nope. He was getting all, well, not flustered, but mesmerised— no, intrigued. Yes, just intrigued by Loki's face. He had to look away. Like, now. Now. No, really, now. Tony wrenched his hand away from Loki's arm, stepped back and turned.

"Wow! That's quite the nasty backstabbing mind-control-spell-thing, isn't it!" Tony said in a cheery tone that sounded false even to his own ears. "Talk about a superhero save, though! Not a millisecond too late, eh? Ugh, just thinking about going through the whole ordeal of you getting all Disney-movie-villain again and me exorcising you… It gives me chills."

Loki's face had recovered its normal, neutral, poker-face-like state. The only thing he did was blink. As if Tony was speaking Chinese – although now that he thought about it, maybe Loki understood Chinese. You never knew with aliens. Anyway, still blinking. How helpful.

"Hum, so… I totally get it if you don't ever want to get close to that thing again – I mean, even I don't want to – but there's the whole thing with trying to lift the curse so that we can get it off the planet for humanity's safety and all that… Of course, if you're still okay with working on it we can do it another day, no proble—"

"Are you calling me a coward?"

Tony still had his mouth half-open, stuck on that last syllable, and he closed it with an audible click. "Is that your way of saying you want to keep working on it now?" More silent blinking. "Okay. All right. Have it your way." As if things had gone any other way than Loki's way lately. "I'll fire up the other scanner and calibrate it like the sceptre's one and we'll see what we can find out."

Tony sat down in front of his screens again, and Loki followed close behind. He loomed over Tony's shoulder while he worked, as if he was following his progress – but Tony was certain there was nothing for Loki to understand. Unless he'd been reading books upon books about programming – and even then he wouldn't get it all. Books aren't the best way to learn.

Loki was standing close enough that Tony could feel his body-heat— well, not heat, but cool. Body-cool. Or maybe it was the proximity that made the bond react. Anyway, Tony was hyper aware of the presence behind him, and it wasn't helping his concentration. He knew why Loki was doing it; he wanted to stay close too after the almost disastrous accident that just happened. For comfort and all that. Tony could call him out on it, but… He couldn't deny that it was _nice_ to have Loki so close and undeniably safe. Like wanting to hold your cute clingy puppy in your arms after you just saved it from being run over. It was just a natural reaction. Nothing to worry about.

"There. Scanners on and configured like the other one. Try and stick your hand in, see what we get."

It took Loki a second before he left, and while it seemed like Loki had his bond-shield-thing up and most feelings were muffled, Tony could feel an underlaying reluctance flowing towards him. Loki nevertheless went and put his hand inside the scanning area as asked, and J.A.R.V.I.S. helpfully put a live image of it on screen. Instead of the vibrating points of light that appeared last time, Loki's hand was almost entirely covered in the holographic light, like a glove that followed every ridge and groove and vein, and that pulsed outward, becoming thinner and more transparent, before snapping back onto the skin.

"Awesome! Now maybe try, I don't know, some kind of spell or something?" Tony watched the screen, ready to fine-tune the scanner's configuration, but nothing happened. He looked up and found Loki scowling at him.

"I will need to be in contact with you if you wish me to do magic for your amusement."

"It's not for my amusement, it's for science! And to try and exorcize the sceptre. But fine, sure, I'll come. J.A.R.V.', you be careful with those parameters, yeah?"

"Of course, Sir."

Tony knew J.A.R.V.I.S. could take care of the scanner perfectly well, it was just that this was _his_ magic-scanning baby and he wanted to be the one who made it flawless and even more groundbreakingly awesome. Couldn't blame him for that, right? Then again if J.A.R.V.I.S. – his amazing A.I. – was the one who fiddled with his invention, then everything was still indirectly created one hundred percent by Tony, so… Yep, he was still super awesome!

The moment he was close enough he grabbed Loki's free hand so that the experiment could start ASAP. The magic scanned around Loki's hand sprung to life immediately, pulsing quicker and bigger and brighter, their bond magic adding its energy to Loki's. Or Tony adding his magical/Arc reactor energy to Loki's, and that was what the bond was. Unless the bond was like some extra magical thing – it felt like that sometimes, like it was some entity who was meddling with their lives, forcing them to stay close and not hide anything from each other. Like some meddling crazy old woman called Fate. Or not. Tony wasn't sure he wanted to believe that some mystical entity had so much influence over his life.

"Tony." Loki's voice spelled 'annoyed' just as much as the bond did. "What is it that you are looking for with this?"

"A way to exorcise the sceptre, duh."

"And how is this going to accomplish that?"

"By studying different types of magic and spells and stuff that you can show me, I might understand the way magic works better, and then we can look for concrete ideas to cut the nasty parasitic magic away from the awesome magical source." Loki sighed, and it obviously meant something along the lines of 'you silly mortal with your silly ideas' and 'that is not how magic works' – of _course_ Loki would underestimate his awesome ideas. Of course. "Science is my way of understanding things. It can't hurt to try, can it?" It wasn't Tony's fault he sounded kind of sulky. Really, it wasn't.

"Fine. However I cannot show you any intricate spells, as even with the soul bond's help too much stress on my magical core might damage it."

"What about the ice thing? You've done that before without a hitch."

Loki hummed in response. "I can use Jötunn ice magic because it is not core-based but cell-based."

Then he stayed silent for almost a whole minute. Tony felt it before he could see the results on the scanner – cold seeped through Loki's skin as if he'd just spent a nice afternoon sunning naked on the North Pole (nope, not naked, Tony couldn't use that imagery right now, let's at least say he had pants on). The holographic representation of Loki's magic stopped pulsating, instead vibrating around his hand in what looked like erratic patterns; Tony could have sworn he heard it buzz. He got his free hand inside the scanner, and just when he was close enough to feel the cold, the light spiked out, suddenly looking more like an urchin than a hand.

"Okay. Good. How about other spells then?"

"Small immobile illusions are easy enough, but I doubt it would be of much use with the sceptre. There is however a small cutting spell that I could try, as well as the beginnings of a fireball—"

"A _fireball_?"

"— an air deflecting spell and gravity distortion. They are all elemental spells, which makes them easier to cast on Midgard than other spells that require more of Yggdrasil's influence."

"Right. Sure. I won't be the one stopping you from showing me a fireball."

"Only the beginning of the spell. A fully formed fire spell needs much more magic than my core can safely channel right now."

"So no fireball?" Tony stuck out his lip in an exaggerated pout. "Ye're a pathetic wizerd, Harry," he added in what was probably the worse Scottish accent ever heard – Loki probably wouldn't know it was a bad accent, though. Right?

Loki shook his head and exasperation made itself know in a corner of Tony head. "No, just a tired and injured one. Let's get started. The sooner we get this over with—"

"Sure. Show me your fireball."

There was a pregnant pause, and Tony could feel the tension emanating from Loki. There was hesitation and a lot of trepidation coming from the bond, so he squeezed his soulmate's hand and waited. And waited. Oh, come on! Didn't he say these were simple spells? Couldn't he at least try somethi—

Loki let go of Tony's hand and turned fully towards him. "It would be best for my magical core if we had a better contact point."

"A better what now?"

"I need to put my hand on your magical core, and you need to put your hand on mine."

"Is that how wizard flirting sounds like these days?"

Loki's eyes went wide, and Tony clamped his mouth shut with an audible smack. Yep, nope, shouldn't have said that. Bad, bad images were filling his head now, with hands going places nowhere near magical cores, and he really should invest in a new brain-to-mouth filter because this one was obviously shot to hell. And perhaps something to reroute the blood flow to his face too – his cheeks were burning and that was really not something he could use either.

"It would be easier if I could access your magical core as directly as possible. Hence a more direct contact with your Arc reactor and your own magical core, using my palm."

"Stealing energy from my Arc reactor to cast spells. Right. That's fine as long as you don't suck me dry."

Loki made a very strange face, and it didn't take long for Tony to go over his last words again and get very, very wrong images in his head – God! Control yourself, Anthony Stark! This was the time for research into magic, not inappropriate thoughts about… a guy! Half-guy. Technically neither male nor female, but… He still looked like a guy. But blue. Like an alien. Yeah, technically this was more xenophilia than homophily— Gah, who was he kidding, he was totally having gay thoughts. Was that bad? Technically, no, but then this wasn't how he was supposed to be. This was not the Tony Stark he knew. Soooooo, yep, it was time to ignore the situation again. He could have a sexual identity crisis later.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Loki curled his hands into fists and tried, unsuccessfully, to ignore his soulmate's tumultuous emotions. He needed to keep a lid on his feelings and supress the urges to touch Tony whenever he was within range – and Tony's ambiguous words followed by panic, embarrassment and self-depreciation certainly did not help. He needed to concentrate on the task at hand. He would have to bypass his magical core and weave the elemental spells one-handed; it was not necessarily difficult, but he would have to be careful.

"All right, let's do this," Tony said, before suddenly taking off his shirt and throwing it towards his main desk. Oh, dear Norns, this mortal was going to be the death of him much sooner than he anticipated. Loki remembered to school his expression, but it might have been too late; Tony was lifting an eyebrow at him, before looking him up and down and smirking. "What's this? Is the mighty warlock and prince of a whole Realm shy all of a sudden?"

Loki bit his tongue to stop himself from replying to that. Shy? Ha! He was anything but! Though it was probably better for Tony to believe that, than to know that it took every bit of self-control he had to restrain himself from doing… something. So he looked Tony straight in the eye, grabbed the hem of his shirt – almost scratching himself in the process, stupid Jötunn nails – and pulled it up and over his head at a moderately slow pace. There was a small explosion of jumbled feelings on his soulmate's side of the bond but it disappeared before Loki could even try to make sense of it.

Tony was looking at the scanner. "So, uhm, with the better connection to my magic and the Arc reactor you can try some spells, right?" Was it him or was Tony hesitant all of a sudden? He had seemed so eager earlier, what in Yggdrasil's name had changed? It was not as if Loki was particularly keen to do this, even though he knew it might help in their quest of purifying the sceptre.

"Yes," he replied. A direct contact with Tony's magical core would help, he had not lied about that – he could not, Tony would have noticed – but was it strictly speaking necessary? No. No, it was not. It was merely better for his magical core. And it had the advantage of being a marvellous excuse to touch Tony more intimately; they were even bare-chested now, which he had not expected, but he certainly would not complain.

Loki stretched out his left arm towards his soulmate as slowly as if he was approaching a frightened beast and gently flattened his palm over the light of the Arc reactor. The bond hummed at their connection, so much more strongly than before and he let himself revel at the sensation. When Tony's hand came up to his magical core, hovering above his skin at first, before trembling, warm fingers grazed his collarbone and the hot palm pressed over his core, Loki had to supress the smile that threatened to overtake his lips. This was the closest he could be to his soulmate at the moment, their souls in sync and their bond singing. He just hoped Tony would not pick up on the frantic beat of his heart just under his hand.

Loki put his other hand in the scanner and tried to concentrate on the task at hand. The magic flowed freely to and fro between them, down Tony's arm, then down his own, and when Loki let go of the tight control his held over his magical core, the soothing rivulet became a powerful stream. Tony inhaled sharply at the change. Focusing on the magic gathered at Tony's core, he inverted the flow of power coming from himself, and Tony's magic poured into him with a dizzying rush.

Tony's other hand slammed over the one Loki held on his chest. "Oh," was all he said, and Loki forced the flow to calm into a gentle rivulet once again. Tony took a deep breath. "No, I'm fine. I just wasn't expecting it to be this strong, that's all," he said in a low, slightly raspy voice.

Adjusting the flow, Loki waited until Tony's magic accumulated in his core; it was a very unpleasant feeling, as Tony's magic, identical and indistinguishable to his own, was tainted with the raw, metallic tasting energy from the Arc reactor that had fused seamlessly to Tony's core, but that was foreign and almost unfriendly in his own. Once he had enough, he stemmed the flow and concentrated on his weak link to Yggdrasil before weaving the first strands of a fireball spell, which would merely create a tiny glowing sphere of heat, without truly being fire yet.

He did his best to ignore the blue shimmering sparks and lines of light that danced in the palm of his hand, or Tony muttering instructions to J.A.R.V.I.S., until finally the basic form of the fireball spell was complete and a steady sphere of heated light magic rested in his palm. Tony's scanner had millions of small sparks swirling in and around the sphere and whizzing outwards until they disappeared.

"That's a fireball?" Tony sounded disappointed.

"The first stage of it." Loki swallowed. This was harder than it should have been.

"Shut down the holo display for a sec, J.A.R.V.." Only the small, hot ball of light remained, floating above the centre of Loki's palm. So hot. Too hot. This was a basic elemental spell, he should have been able to cast it in his sleep; was it because he had used magic that was not his own? Tony's hand that had still been gripping Loki's over his chest slowly unclasped and entered the scanner's working area. Tony wisely stopped at a safe distance.

"Ah, yeah, okay. It may not look like fire, but that could potentially burn, so. I'll accept this as being a kid fireball."

Loki's hand trembled – this was unbearable. He'd always had some trouble with fire magic, even though it was the one he liked the most, but this was ridiculous. He had studied fire magic more than any other elemental magic because fire magic was eye-catching and impressive and the only magic that sometimes managed to shut oafish warriors like Thor's friends up, even though his elemental affinity lay with the boring and unimposing water magi— Loki took a startled breath and his control slipped. The ball of heat expanded and he jerked his hand away, slapping Tony's out of the way in the same movement before the ball exploded, sending a hot wave of air into their faces.

They stood frozen for a second, Tony's nails digging in Loki's skin both on his chest and on his other hand that his soulmate was now gripping. Tony let out a long, whistling breath. "Wow. That was… Wow."

"I apologise. I did not intend to do that." A pathetic loss of control, worse than what even the most laughable first tier novice could have done. He was glad no one but Tony had witnessed this; Tony would not know how wretched his performance had been. Letting go of his self-control like that, just because he realised how stupidly slow and dense he had been. _Of course_ water magic was the element he had a natural affinity for; he was a Frost Giant, and ice magic was a branch of water magic. And _of course_ fire magic would resist him; he was a Frost Giant, and fire magic was considered one of their weaknesses. His primary affinity for water, his secondary affinity for air, his talent in illusions and shapeshifting, the location of his magical core, his preference for colder climes, that something in Heimdall's gaze and his complicated relationship with the Allfather; it had all pointed towards his Jötunn origin, and he had been too foolish to see, too foolish to even suspect. Too trusting of those he had respected. A stupid little prince indeed.

"Hey." Tony pushed against his chest and Loki's gaze focused on him once again. "Hey, it's okay, no one got hurt. You're fine, I'm fine, the scanner's fine, nothing to worry about, all right?" Tony's smile looked a bit unsure and worry was pecking at their bond, so Loki nodded. Now was not the time to drown in past mistakes. "Okay. J.A.R.V., replay that spell's magic, will ya?"

The pulsating form of his hand appeared, with small whizzing waves rushing to one finger, then another, two fingers, one again, feeding the swirling lines of his weaving that danced above the form of his hand. "Full holo zoom and slow seventy-five percent." The spell weaving took up the entirety of the scanner's surface, multiplying the amount of light points shown by a thousand, showing how tiny drops of magic made their way through the air in a quick, dizzying but precise pattern – the pattern Loki pushed the magic into while he weaved the spell – until they settled in the middle, building a swirling sphere. His grasp on magic. It was fascinating and breath-taking to see.

"That. Is. Awesome. You— With your fingers you kind of juggle the magic from one place to another, right? In a specific pattern. Until the first layer is done, and then the pattern changes for the next layer, right?" Loki was impressed. More than impressed. Tony had understood the basics of spell weaving just by looking at this, and even with it being slowed down, it must be almost too fast for a mortal eye to see. Loki could not stop the smile that bloomed on his face even if he had tried.

"You're doing it so fast! And this is like, a super easy spell? That is, wow. You're just. You're amazing. Like, seriously. You're so crazy amazing, it's not fun." Tony was so sincere, the bond quivered in delight.

Loki couldn't help it, he laughed. He almost didn't recognise the feeling of pure joy that filled his chest with light, it had been so long, and there was nothing he could do to contain it. Tony was still holding onto the back of his now slightly burned hand, and Loki turned his palm upwards so that he was grasping Tony's hand instead, and he tugged it towards him. Before his brain even had time to register what he was doing, before he could tell himself how much of a bad idea this could be, he brought Tony's hand to his mouth and pressed his lips against his knuckles. Tony's eyes went wide and his jaw dropped open, and Loki didn't dare blink. His lips rested there for one second, two, three, and Tony's cheeks and ears darkened enticingly. Loki smirked and that broke the spell – Tony wrenched his hand away and let out a stuttering breath.

* * *

Well, at least this time it ends with a happier note than last time, right? And a kiss on the hand – I had to put that in somewhere ;) It's a classic prince move after all XD

Anyway, with a bit of luck the next chapter won't take as long as last time.

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	28. Chapter 28

Oh my Nordic god! Look at who's – temporarily – back! Me! Rejoice, y'all, rejoice :p

So, a new chapter. Longer than usual. (A double chapter, to be precise). Going in an unintended direction – as in talk of Infinity Stones and wars concerning said stones. Which kind of changes my initial plotline a bit (potentially a lot); characters just do what they want, don't they? I just have to suffer along as they go their merry way and refuse to listen. In that regard, they also left you a cute gift – that was unexpected for me, though not necessarily unwelcome ;) – so I hope you're happy XD (Sorry about the big amount of mojo-talk again, though).

Previously on ASAF: _"You're doing it so fast! And this is like, a super easy spell? That is, wow. You're just. You're amazing. Like, seriously. You're so crazy amazing, it's not fun." Tony was so sincere, the bond quivered in delight._

 _Loki couldn't help it, he laughed. He almost didn't recognise the feeling of pure joy that filled his chest with light, it had been so long, and there was nothing he could do to contain it. Tony was still holding onto the back of his now slightly burned hand, and Loki turned his palm upwards so that he was grasping Tony's hand instead, and he tugged it towards him. Before his brain even had time to register what he was doing, before he could tell himself how much of a bad idea this could be, he brought Tony's hand to his mouth and pressed his lips against his knuckles. Tony's eyes went wide and his jaw dropped open, and Loki didn't dare blink. His lips rested there for one second, two, three, and Tony's cheeks and ears darkened enticingly. Loki smirked and that broke the spell – Tony wrenched his hand away and let out a stuttering breath._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 28**

"Thank you," Loki said, and he wasn't even certain what he was thanking Tony for; for his compliment, for allowing Loki's show of affection even for an instant, for his amazing intellect, for being his soulmate. He let his smirk widen; time to redirect Tony's attention, lest he start piecing together the too many snippets of information Loki was showing him and discover his deepening affection. "I am, indeed, amazing; this spell, like many others, is not supposed to be cast one-handed, and yet…"

"You—" Tony cleared his throat. "You cocky bastard. Don't get too full of yourself. Let's not forget what happened afterwards." He gestured at the scanner with his head and the spell's after-image skipped forward until it was already cast, hovering above the form of his hand and tethered by tiny strings of magic to the centre of his palm. The strings wavered and vanished, and the sphere expanded, the surface bubbled and exploded, sending a wave of light in every direction until they vanished to the limits of the scanner's surface.

It was Loki's turn to clear his throat. "An unfortunate mishap. I was… distracted by the display."

Tony's eyes narrowed. "Liar."

Loki looked away. "I was distracted." That was certainly true. "I believe you wanted to see more spells?"

Tony acquiesced, and Loki was soon back at work, more carefully this time, weaving simple spells; a simple air blade, an air-water illusion – Tony was in awe of the simple apple that seemed to be in his hand, even though his soulmate had seen much more complicated illusions such as multiple _mobile_ _displays of himself –_ a visible air shield, and an earth gravity enhancing spell that Tony decided to test by sticking his hand in the scanner and getting his hand pulled down so hard it smacked onto Loki's and the spell instantly faded. So much for his soulmate's physical prowess, then.

"That was painful, but still awesome. Everything you did was awesome. Magic is awesome!"

"I'm glad you agree."

"Just as awesome as science and great tech." Loki wisely remained silent. "Aw, come on! You've seen some of the stuff I make!" Loki looked at Tony's somehow both eager and pouting face, and he recognised himself when he was young and keen to prove himself and wanted at least one person – read, Odin – to say that his magic was 'awesome'.

"Fine. Your technology is 'awesome—" Tony's face lit up with pleasure "—when compared to the rest of Midgard."

Tony pursed his lips. "Well you know what, you blue-coloured Grinch, one day you'll understand how awesome humans and you'll regret ever having underestimated us, mark my words."

"I shall eagerly await the day, elskan mín," Loki smirked.

Tony paused. "Right." He blinked. "So, got anything else that could be useful?"

"There are many spells I could show you, however I doubt it will help in our quest."

"Quest! Ha! Yeah, sure, let's make it a quest – we'll get experience out of it and amazing loot in the form of a sceptre. And possibly an achievement too." And his soulmate's nonsensical streak was back yet again. "Nothing else coming to mind that could help us defeat the boss? The big bad taint?"

"As I have mentioned before, I am unfamiliar with the Mad Titan's magic – I only know he worships Lady Death, but I have no idea how it pertains to his magic."

Tony sighed. "Guess we might need to level up first, then." He let his arm fall down and stepped back. Their connection broke with an almost audible snap, only linked by their soul once again. Loki clenched his teeth and Tony grimaced. "Maybe gain access to some new powerful magic and beat his arse."

"We already have access to the most powerful form of magic that exists under the span of Yggdrasil's branches: soul magic. Though of course, as it is so rare, it has never been proven to be the most powerful of all, but it is said to be even mightier than love-enhanced magic."

"Seriously? Did you just talk about the power of love? Like, true love breaks the curse and all that crap? _Seriously_?" Tony gazed at him intensely, perhaps looking for some form of deceit – not that he would not be able to conceal anything of the sort. "Well, I hate to break it to you, pal, but that ain't gonna work. No way we can summon any love magic here."

Something trembled around his heart, but it was gone so quickly he could very well have imagined it. And dear Norns, did he want to imagine that feeling; the feeling that somewhere, at least one word in Tony's last sentence had possibly not been entirely true. He smothered any burgeoning hope with the strength and the ferocity of a raging bilgesnipe. He didn't have time for hope that was based on such flimsy evidence.

"We do not need love-enhanced magic, as we have soul magic readily available."

"Yeah, but wouldn't love-enhanced soul magic not be even more epically awesome?" That stopped Loki's thought process in its tracks and it must have shown on his face because Tony's confidence faltered. "You're gonna tell me, again, that I don't understand anything, aren't you?"

"No. That is— I—" Loki took a deep breath to reign in the thousands of possibilities that just lit up his mind like Midgardian fireworks. "I had not thought of that, but it could indeed work. It might also be the combination of two magical cores and love-enhanced magic that created the myth of soul magic's ultimate power."

Tony grinned. "And Tony Stark just proved he's a genius yet again! Where's the applause?"

"It is waiting for a true breakthrough, Sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. chimed in.

"Ha-bloody-ha. Anyway, love-enhanced magic, you gotta explain that one."

"There is not much to explain; it's simply sending your feelings of love alongside the magical energy while casting a spell. Not many people are actually capable of doing it, however. And more often than not it is not done on purpose by the caster – it has been observed the most often while in situations of duress, such as trying to save a loved one. But if one is talented enough, it can be used outside of such situations."

"You ever used it before?"

"I have never had the need." He didn't even know if he was capable of using it. He'd seen Mother use it before, but then Queen Frigga was a bright, warm, loving person, and Loki was anything but.

"Well, even if you can't use love magic, there's still soul magic, right? Could that be strong enough on its own?"

"It has repelled the Mad Titan's taint more than once without having been used purposefully. If I could shape it into something, perhaps…"

"Like a soul-made fireball or something?"

"No, not a spell. As far as I am aware, soul magic only exists in the form of raw energy, there is no spell that has ever been cast using soul magic."

"Wait, what was this then?" Tony asked, gesturing between them.

"That was a connection of magical cores. The bond, created by the fact we share a soul, serves as a bridge to share our magical cores, our physical access to magic. And we can only share that magic because our magical signatures are identical – because we are soulmates. The only reason I can somewhat use your Arc reactor as a booster without any channelling spells is because its energy has merged with yours. Soul magic… Soul magic can only be accessed when a soul is whole, which is why it is so rare. Half souls are not strong enough, and not physically connected enough to use it. The bond is what give us access to our soul; it connects us in all fragments of existence: body, magic, soul and mind."

"Erm, wow, okay. Yeah. Mind-blowing. That's the word. Either because I didn't understand this at all and you just blew my mind to smithereens, or because I actually got what you said and it blows my mind. I'm not sure. Also, this might be the most times I've used the word 'blow' in under a minute without being in a bedroom, so yeah. Mind-blowing." Tony nodded to himself. "Oh, and body, mind, soul _and_ magic? As in, magic is not just like a subpart of the body or whatever? I mean, I was more of the Descartes kind of guy, you know, body, mind and that's it, but then you arrived and I had to concede to Aristotle and accept that soul is a thing. But now you're saying that there is like a whole part of human beings that humanity is not aware of? Mind-blowing. Unless it doesn't apply to us mortals, that is."

"Don't you have a magical core?"

"I— Okay. Is this why you have that whole 'I don't understand you people who don't even know magic exists' vibe going?"

Loki smiled. As always, Tony seemed to understand him so easily. "I believe I know why magic is not considered real here. Midgard used magic when I was young. However, just as the connection to Yggdrasil's branches has waned, so has your knowledge of magic. It is not your fault. And yet, even without magic, Midgard has come this far."

"Did you just accept that we mere mortals are actually awesome? You did, didn't you?" Loki opened his mouth to respond, but Tony held up his hand, palm forward. "Nope, you don't get to retract that. J.A.R.V.I.S. filmed it all anyway. I've got proof."

"And what if I was going to admit that some Midgardians might not be as subpar as—"

"Oh, yes, go right ahead, don't let me stop you."

Loki smirked. "Too late."

"Mmmh. I'll make you say I'm a super awesome human someday, you'll see. Anyway. Soul magic. Wanna give it a try?" Tony said, gesturing at the scanner.

"It could be dangerous. It is powerful and volatile, and using too much of it could damage—"

"Let's try."

Loki frowned. "Did you even listen to a word I just said?"

"You said dangerous. And powerful. And volatile. Three things I deal with all the time. Let's try."

"I doubt you damage your _soul_ on a regular basis."

"Ha! You'd be surprised!" The fact that Tony seemed completely serious should be disturbing, and yet Loki felt like he knew exactly what Tony meant. He doubted his half-soul had survived his millennia unscathed. "Come on, don't chicken out on me now. It's for the quest!"

"I would be the one wielding the magic born form our soul, not you. Manipulating it, even though I've never done it before."

"You're a crazy good wizard so you'll figure it out, right? I trust you." _I trust you_. Tony was trusting him with the wellbeing of their _soul_. He… No, Tony just did not understand, did he? And yet, the look his soulmate was giving him. He knew. He knew what he was saying. Loki couldn't breathe— This was too much. How could he be expected to wield the power of legends? No one had ever trusted him with anything as important as this; no one had ever trusted him as much as Tony in this moment. This was Tony laying his life at Loki's feet, right there. How could he— All his careful plans always failed anyw—

Tony placed his hand over Loki's heart again, and it was like an electric shock. "Hey. It's fine. No pressure. You don't need to do it if you don't want to."

"No," Loki said, surprising even himself. "No, I'll do it." He would. He would wield the most powerful of magics. He was Loki Friggason of Asgard; who else would be capable of doing it but him? And was this whole soulmate situation not orchestrated by the Norns anyhow? If anything went wrong, he would just have to take it up with Lady Fate.

Tony grinned. "That's the spirit!"

Loki placed his hand over Tony's Arc reactor and closed his eyes. He vaguely registered Tony telling J.A.R.V.I.S. how to adjust the scanner before his awareness of their surroundings faded. The only thing left was Tony and him; their bodies, their rushing blood and beating hearts; their magic, flowing between them freely, almost lazily; their minds, Tony's excitement and trepidation and his vague impression of this sensation being 'weird', and Loki's equal determination and fear; their soul, their joined spark of life and being and self, a whirling mix of colours and shapes and temperatures and textures and smells and tastes, something intangible and indescribable and 'you' and 'me' and 'us'. Loki caressed it with the only part of him, of them, that could touch it; their magic. Their soul shivered, and an infinitely small part of it caught onto that tendril of magic, and the world _exploded_.

It only lasted an instant before Loki severed that new link, but it was enough. He didn't know where he begun and where Tony ended. He didn't know where they began and the world ended. There was the sceptre, the brightness of its centre, the darkness of Thanos' influence, the looming presence of Yggdrasil's branches however fragile those were, the millions of lives that lived around him, the energy of this Realm burning so fiercely. He was confusion and awe and fear and curiosity; unless that was Tony. For that one instant, he did not know. He did not know anything.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Tony panting and looking at him wide-eyed. "Uh huh. You've never used that before all right. You totally let it control you instead of controlling it."

Loki's jaw dropped. "What?"

"Don't tell me you didn't feel that. It pushed you over like a pin in front of a bowling ball. You let it push you. You gotta be firm. Like telling your broomstick to fly up to your hand: with feeling. Got it? Now try again."

Loki felt like a scolded child – and by of Tony of all people. Blood rushed to his face and the urgent need to protest this situation was overwhelming, but Tony gave his chest a little shove and Loki clamped down on the feeling. It seemed his soulmate had a different perspective on their connection to their soul. It might be due to their difference in species, or Tony's lack of magical knowledge, or something else entirely. It did not mean Tony was better at this than him.

Loki took a deep breath and tried again, firmer this time in his approach. And yet, the moment the connection was made his perception of the world started to fragment. He was ready to let go once more when suddenly he felt like someone joined him, holding onto the figurative hand with which he was touching their soul with an outstretched finger. Tony was there beside him, behind him, holding onto him in their magic and giving him the strength he needed to overcome the powerful presence of everything else. His mind cleared. He severed the connection again.

"Okay. Don't know what happened exactly. But it worked so never mind. Ready to see if you can shape the soul magic, as you said earlier?"

Loki swallowed and nodded. This was the challenging part, was it not? Actually controlling their soul magic without doing irreversible damage. He put his free hand inside the scanner once again. He closed his eyes and forged the link to their soul. When he started bursting at the seams, Tony was there, keeping him together, and Loki could look at the world again. That was when he pulled – pulled on their soul's energy, bringing a thread of it to his core, then to his outstretched hand. The scanner went haywire, beeping, the imagery trembling, but Loki ignored it in favour of watching that amazing energy dance over his skin. He coaxed it towards his index finger and outward, and it was like a flame of pure wild magic spouting from his nail. The scanner's image flickered, and then showed its own version of what was happening: a bright, vaguely cone-shaped spout of magic, the light points intensively spinning on themselves and stubbornly remaining in that vague shape that Loki had managed to wheedle it into.

"Can you make it thinner and pointier?" Tony asked, and his voice almost made Loki let go of his stiff grasp of the soul magic. "'Cause you know, if it's pointy like a blade maybe you can stab the curse to death. Cut those strands that look like they connect it to the centre piece." In his mind's eye Loki saw the representation Tony had forged of Thanos' taint earlier, and again Tony's idea, while seemingly insane, could actually turn out to be genius.

"Wanna try the love thing?" Now that choice of words was distracting enough to annihilate Loki's control at once. The thread of soul magic slipped out of his hand, and he barely managed to grab it at his core before it was gone entirely. "Sorry, that was poorly phrased," Tony said, passing a hand through his hair and embarrassment flaring up along the bond. "I mean, d'you think adding the love-enhanced business will help with your control over it or is that just adding on more energy or?"

Loki cleared his throat. Love-enhanced magic could be hazardous, not because of the magic itself, but because of the feeling manipulation it implied. One needed to concentrate on one's deepest feelings of love while using it, but because of the bond, Tony would be privy to those feelings, especially since— "That would imply opening our minds and not hiding any of our feelings during the process."

"Well, that's more your problem than mine, isn't it? I'm not the one who has a fancy mind-shield-bubble like you." That was exactly what he did not like about this. "You still need to tell me how you do that by the way." Unfortunately. "Don't worry, I won't hold it against you if you can't do it. I've seen you have performance issues before." And then Tony had the gall to wink at him, the little—

"Let us try," Loki said, regretting it the moment the words left his mouth. Tony's grin looked almost predatory all of a sudden.

"Cool. What do I need to do?"

"Send… your deepest feelings. Towards me. Through the bond. And do not hold anything back. Positive feelings only. Negative feelings would be more disruptive than helpful. I was told it was easier to gather those feelings of love by thinking of only one person" – _me, if only it could be me_ – "instead of more than one," Loki explained with as straight a face as he could muster.

"Feelings, to the bond, no holding back. Simple enough, even I should be able to do that, right?"

"Perhaps."

"Why, thank you for the vote of confidence." Tony blew out a bracing breath. "All right, let's do this." He closed his eyes, but Loki kept staring at his soulmate's face.

He did not doubt he could conjure up the right type of feelings for Tony; the problem was conjuring up the courage to let them show. Instead he was stalling, observing his soulmate's face now that he had the liberty to do so unobserved. The tiny lines at the corner of his eyes, now relaxed as they were closed; the dark locks of hair that drooped over his forehead, whatever had been keeping them out of the way losing its power as the day wore on; the lonely moles and isolated freckles that were scattered on the tan skin of his chest; the strangely styled beard and the barely budding hairs on the rest of his cheeks –Midgardian hair grew as fast as their lives were short, it seemed.

Tony frowned, new lines marring his forehead, and that was when Loki felt it. The feelings being _pushed_ at him along the bond, instead of them naturally floating along. It was a mix, difficult to tell apart, but from time to time he caught tendrils of specific feelings; interest, amusement, curiosity, joy, humour, admiration, surprise, respect, pride, wonder, fascination, longing, awe, care, affection, and others he could not distinguish. It was so beautiful and all encompassing, Loki forgot to breathe. Sure, these feelings were probably not meant for Loki, but they were beautiful anyway.

Suddenly the wave came to an abrupt stop. Tony opened his eyes, still frowning. "Is anything happening? 'Cause I don't really feel anything different, but then I might not even know if it works, you're the magic expert—"

Loki inhaled sharply. "No, it's— It's working. Don't stop."

The flow of feelings started to come back. "Okay… I just hope this works 'cause it's a pain to have to only think of your good sides." Annoyed, disgruntled, irritated, amused, said Tony's feeling. "It's difficult to forget that you're also a tricky bastard."

Loki could not stop a smile from splitting his face in half; all these feelings were for him! It may not have the burn of overwhelming love behind it that he had felt in Mother's love-enhanced magic, but it certainly was a step in the right direction – surely with this amount of feelings, Tony thought of him as a cherished friend already. Together they would never feel lonely again, and that was more than anything he could have hoped for in his until now much too wretched life.

Warmth bloomed in his chest. Loki let go of the last remnants of his mental shielding, and sent all his love and affection towards his soulmate. Tony's eyes, which had been closed in concentration once again, flew open and his mouth formed an incredulous 'o'. The wave of feelings coming from him stuttered, before coming back with a vengeance. Loki's core purred and hummed and shivered, the most soothing magical energy he had ever felt slowly coating his own.

Loki pulled on the tread of soul magic again, and brought it back to his outstretched hand. This time the scanner did not falter as much, and Loki let the magic glide to the top of his finger. It felt smoother, less wild, following his prompting with only a slight hesitation. The flame of magic became flatter, longer, thinner, until it was a blade the width of his finger. It only took a little push for it to become thinner still, rounder, a small sabre, a pick, a needle. The feelings coming over the bond became less varied, less focused, losing their affection and gaining exponentially in curiosity and awe. Loki's control suddenly snapped, and the soul magic slipped out of him quicker than he could stop it.

Tony turned to look at his face and stayed silent for a beat, two, his face frozen with the emotion he was sending Loki. And then he was a flurry of motion – stepping back, turning away, turning back, passing a hand through his hair, over his face. "That— I have no words for what just happened. There's no way that that can even be described in any language." For some reason, Tony was breathing hard and his face had darkened with blood, moisture beading at his temples. "But, that. Do you think it will work? Cutting the curse to pieces with that magic?"

"I have no idea. I don't believe such a thing has ever been tried before, and it goes against all the rules I know about magic. I am aware, however, that there are many magics in the universe that I know nothing about, therefore I cannot predict the effect soul magic will have over the Mad Titan's taint."

"I say: let's try? I mean, it can't hurt, right?" Loki could imagine hundreds of ways Thanos' magic could 'hurt'. "I won't let go of you, not even for a second, I promise. That sceptre won't be able to hurt you ever again, I won't let it." Tony's gaze burned with his determination, and even though he knew Tony was only a mortal and could not back up that claim in any way, Loki felt soothed by the sentiment. When Tony grabbed his hand and tugged, he did not resist, even when their steps led them to _that_ side of the workshop, even when he could feel the taint in the air, feel it single-mindedly focus on _him_. Loki could not take his eyes off the sceptre, its blue glow still free of Tony's scientific representation of its power, the dark tentacle of the taint meandering around it like seaweed in the waves. Seaweed ready to grab hold of him and strangle him and drag him under until he drowned.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Tony felt Loki losing his previously hard-won determination; he tugged on the hand he was holding, and Loki locked gazes with him. He brought the blue-coloured hand up to his Arc reactor and held it there, before splaying his own hand over Loki's heart.

"Sir, I have been advised that dinner will soon be ready and both you and Mr Friggason are expected upstairs."

"Not now J.A.R.V.', don't you see we're in the middle of something important?"

"Sir—"

"No. Lock down the workshop. Don't interrupt us until we're finished. And display the holo of the sceptre's scan, true to size, just above the real thing."

Now that it was just as small as the sceptre's glowing stone, it was difficult to distinguish the threads that connected the curse, in blue, to the yellow core that it surrounded, but Tony figured that if Loki was to stab anything, he'd better see it true to size.

"Ready?" Loki didn't acknowledge him, but after a few seconds Tony started to feel the tell-tale sign of Loki concentrating on their soul; Tony was not himself anymore, he was not one but two, and they were one, and they were in the world and they were part of the world. They had their hand outstretched, outward, only it was inward and touching their centre, and their hand flickered, and Tony tautened the muscles of their hand, and while he was still not entirely one again, at least the world returned to its rightful place. Loki held their soul magic.

And if _that_ wasn't weird and disturbing and complicated enough, now came the tricky part. Tony wasn't even sure how he had done it last time. Just, thinking of all his non-negative feelings for Loki, starting with him being an alien, and a wizard, and how cool and weird and mind-blowing was that? And he looked like a pretty okay guy if you forgot about the first impressions, and sometimes he looked so insecure it was almost cute – let's not investigate _that_ feeling further – and as long as you forgot about the prissy-princess-with-a-chip-on-their-shoulder part, he was the kind of guy Tony could be friends with – even though he rarely did 'friends' – and maybe, just maybe they could have become friends regardless of the whole soulmate mess. Not that the soulmate thing didn't have positive points; Loki was stuck with him, more than any legal agreement (AKA marriage) or even genetical link (AKA family) could bind people together. Of course, that was a double-edged sword, as Tony with stuck with Loki too, but it could have been much worse. And at least Loki was pretty damn nice to look at too, no matter the skin he wore – though it wasn't the time to think about that, given the type of feelings _that_ might dredge up and send along the bond. He just needed to focus on the interesting, the awesome, the just-nice/considerate-enough-not-to-be-annoying, the he-can't-leave-me, skip the mesmerizingly-handsome-and-divine-model-type-looks, and repeat.

In return he got a tidal wave of… feelings, a blend impossible to distinguish they were so tightly packed together, an indescribable, frustrating mix that he would love to dissect and understand. Instead he only got an affectionate warmth that flooded his veins and hugged him tight, a heat that felt searching and frantic – it was as hot as Loki's skin could be cold (and boy, could he make that skin cold). This was literally cold hands and warm heart. Tony did his best not to be overwhelmed by the force of it.

The other part of his mind that didn't need to concentrate on the love thing – because hey, he was Tony Stark, multi-tasking was a given – focussed on what Loki was doing with the soul magic. Loki had formed the magic into a thin needle blazing with energy; Tony could see-feel the magic of it, as Loki's hand wasn't within the perimeter of the scanner yet. The only thing he could do to help was just tense imaginary magic-muscles to maintain the form Loki had chosen. That would have to do.

Tony eyed the holographic display, so small that the links between curse and core were barely thick enough to be visible. Having access to the real-size thing was helpful to be able to judge the movements to be made, but… "J.A.R.V.', add a secondary display, zoomed in on the area we'll be working on." Nothing appeared yet, waiting for Loki to choose the starting point.

This was it. The moment of truth. The moment Tony's crazy and kind of happy-go-lucky theory would either be proven to be awesomely right, or everything could go horribly wrong and they'd both end up slaves to Thanos' spell or something even worse. _Lady Fate, if you're real, I hope to God or the World Tree or whatever that this is not the end you had in mind, 'cause you're not gonna like it when I come up to wherever you are and punch you in the gut, lady or not_.

Loki's trepidation was choking the bond now, muffling the love magic to a point that Tony almost lost control over it – and maybe that was his fault too, thinking about worst case scenarios – so Tony squeezed the hand on his chest and said, "Hey." Loki's eyes turned towards him, so red, so wide, so full of uncertainty. "Reindeer Games." Loki's eyes widened just a tiny bit more. Uhm, no, perhaps it wasn't the right moment for nicknames, especially one he used before their soul became one, when he was still under the sceptre's influence. Oops? "Loks." Better. Not reassuring in any way, but better. "Babe." Okay, that was maybe going a bit too far, brain! But hey, it had changed the quality of Loki's stare at least, now filling with surprise instead. Huh. Maybe just this once he'd continue on this track, knowing full well it could mean trouble later. "Listen up, gorgeous, 'cause I'm only gonna say this once. I don't care if I don't have any proof of what I'm going to say, and I don't care because I'll still believe it no matter what: you're awesome. You're intelligent. You're strong. You're handsome. You're sexy." That one had been hard to say, but it was nonetheless true and Loki knew it, he could see it in the twitch of his lips. Tony took a deep breath. Suck it up, you so-called hero. "And most of all, you're the best wizard I'll ever meet, so you can do this. _We_ can do this. So get your shit together, snowflake. You're the great Tony Stark's soulmate – time to show the world you're worth it."

Loki's smirk was small and rather hesitant, but his voice sounded just like it always did, deep and self-assured and— let's not start waxing poetic about his voice right now. "If I'm as 'awesome' as you say, shouldn't you be the one to wonder if you are worth being the great Loki of Asgard's soulmate?"

"I'll start questioning myself _after_ you prove yourself by exorcising the sceptre. Until then I'll consider myself equally awesome."

"As you said, we are doing this together. Ergo I would not be able to prove my awesome abilities, merely ours."

Had Loki just called him, a fucked-up, weak, mortal genius, equally awesome to a magic-wielding, super strong, super handsome alien prince? Tony cleared his throat – now was not the time to get all flustered and excited and red in the face and whatnot. They had work to do. "Okay. Let's prove we're an awesome team, then."

Loki barely hesitated this time. With a renewed grip on the needle of magic, his finger got closer and closer to the sceptre. It entered the scanning area and a thin concentration of light emerged from under Loki's pointy nail, bright and white – no, wait, was that slightly pink? Was J.A.R.V.I.S. trolling them, what with the love enhancing magic and all that? That little piece of shit— No. Concentrate, Tony. Send affection and shit to Loki, ignore the warmth coming in return, and tauten those invisible magical muscles that keep Loki's grip on the magic stable. Easy-peasy.

The needle-magic scraped the surface of the sceptre's big blue gem, and on both displays above there was a firework of angry blue sparks. Magical purple tentacles were writhing in the air, oozing a miasma of pure hatred with the putrid taste of death; they froze and turned towards Loki's hand before surging all at once and latching onto him, coiling around his arm almost up to his shoulder. Tony could feel the resistance of their combined magic, the struggle he was participating in remotely, and he could see Loki's arm tremble under the force of it. Loki pushed, the needle disappeared from view inside the writhing mass and lit up like a lighthouse in both displays before perforating one of the thin tendrils that that linked the curse to the core.

The scream Thanos' taint emitted was ear-splitting and Tony grimaced, teeth bared and clenched tight; he wondered if that sound was real or just delivered directly into his head. He'd have to review the footage later. The curse clamped Loki's hand tighter, Tony could feel it. There was like a sense of panic floating around his head, and he knew it wasn't coming from him, or Loki. It had to be the sceptre – the curse, if it could _feel_ anything. Or perhaps it was coming directly from Thanos. _Take that, arsehole! That's what you get when you try to fuck with us_!

Loki very slowly moved to another tendril with surgical precision and cut it in half. And another. And another. Cut, pause to get you hand squished, reposition, cut, repeat. It was taking almost forever, and Tony had sweat tickling his temples and threatening to roll down from his hairline to his eyes, but it was fucking working so he was gonna fucking pretend like this wasn't sucking all the energy – life, magic, soul, who fucking knew – out of him and pouring it into Loki. And it wasn't even enough because Loki looked like he was about to collapse, but hey, they were like halfway there.

Loki stopped, breathing hard; one side of the gem was done and he wouldn't be able to access the other side from here. "Okay, hold on. I'll rotate the sceptre." Tony's fingers were very reluctant to unfurl from where they were squeezing Loki's other hand and pushing it as hard as he could against his Arc reactor, and when he finally placed his palm on the sceptre's shaft they were even more reluctant to curl around it. But he did manage to bite through it and give the sceptre half a turn before flattening his hand over Loki's again on his chest. And the harrying magical parasite removal continued.

What felt like an eternity later, only a few strands remained, and the curse's tentacles had diminished in size to a point where they could only coil around Loki's fingers. They were twitching and flopping around in dying spasms; even the high-pitched screams that were giving Tony a headache had diminished in volume. Just a few threads left. Just four. Three. Two. Tony held his breath, and Loki paused before the last one. Then he stabbed it viciously, all the hatred he'd been holding back for the love magic to work suddenly releasing and flooding Tony's senses, and the curse's scream stopped abruptly. All at once the blue representation of the curse that had still been floating around the golden core blinked out of existence and Loki ripped his hand away like he'd been burned. The love magic snapped, the soul magic recoiled and slipped out of Loki's hands, back to where it belonged; the bond felt almost non-existent for a second and Tony couldn't breathe. Loki slumped forward and Tony barely had the reflex to catch him.

With trembling thighs Tony lowered them to the ground without actually falling – God, the bastard was heavy as fuck – and they ended up on their knees with Loki's head lulling against his shoulder and black hair attached to said head threatening to enter his mouth. But that was fine. Everything was good. They'd done it! They'd fucking done it! Thank fucking God, or Yggdrasil, or whatever other beings out there who gave a shit.

Tony closed his eyes and was about to let the side of his head rest against Loki's as well when an ominous crack reached his ears and his eyelids flew open again. He stared up at the sceptre, bare of the scanner's lights. He couldn't see anything different from this vantage point but the sound had definitely come from up there. No. No, they were fucking _done_! He didn't have the energy to do anything else but sit here and breathe. _Craaack_! Fissures ripped across the dim gem, fracturing with the faint light coming from within, and Tony sat up straighter.

"Loks," he said, and he didn't want to call that urgent tone in his voice panic, but… A tiny piece of the gem fell off and clanged against the scanner's surface. "Loki." Did this just mean they'd killed the sceptre and this was just its body returning to dust or whatnot, or was it some sort of terrible power that was going to explode in their faces because let's face it, when had luck ever been on Tony's side – or on Loki's for that matter? Tony grabbed Loki's shoulders and shook him. " _Loki_!" he yelled (and he'd never admit his voice might have gone up an octave).

"What." The bond trickled to life. A second passed, another piece of the gem fell away. Loki's head whipped up, a lock of hair falling across his face, and his eyes met Tony's, full of concern. "What? What is it?"

"Is that"– he pointed at the gem and Loki turned to look –"supposed to happen?"

The answer must have been no because Loki sprang up – where the Hell did he get the energy from – and less than a second later Tony was yanked to his feet none too gently with Loki's hand firmly holding onto his own.

"So, this isn't supposed to happen?"

"I… do not know. It may simply be that this outer casing is being rejected by the still existing magic at its core. It may be that this gem was merely meant to hold Thanos' power in place, and now that it's gone it is no longer needed."

"It's not going to explode or something, then?"

"I do not believe so."

"That was your way of saying 'probably not', right? What about the small statistical chance that it will blow up in our faces? Shouldn't we, like, step back or something?" He could just as well have been talking to the floor for all the good it did; Loki stepped up close to the sceptre and leaned in, and of course Tony had no choice but to follow when he was reeled in by his bastard of a soulmate.

"You worry too much," Loki said, and wasn't that rich? He was Tony Stark, king of recklessness and taking chances and acting like he didn't give a shit about what happened to him. Loki had even chided him for being reckless only a few days ago, and now he worried too much? Tssk! He made it sound like Tony had lost his nerve or something. Tony stepped up close, shoulder to shoulder with Loki – naked shoulder to naked shoulder, and how come he'd forgotten they were half naked, damnit – and he nudged his soulmate aside so he was the closest to the cracking gem. There. Now if it exploded it would take off Tony's head first, and maybe Loki would have time enough to duck or something. Not that it mattered because if Tony died then Loki would too. Yeah, sure, why on Earth was he worried? It was just _their_ funeral. (And wasn't that just a shit ton of problems right there; how the fuck was he supposed to risk his life as Iron Man knowing he would automatically cause Loki's death as well as his own? Not that it mattered if they died right now because of the amazing bout of exorcism they'd just done.)

That's when his crazy, crazy soulmate decided to tempt Fate once again and touched the top of the gem with his tapered nail and it crumbled under his touch. There were no explosions, no blinding lights, no implosions of the universe; just a small, glowing yellow stone hovering in mid-air in the same spot as where the centre of the gem would have been. As in, this was the central magical core they'd saved from the curse. "Huh," was the only thing that managed to pass Tony's lips, which was the perfect word to equally describe 'what the fuck', 'holy Hell' and 'awesome' (though technically it wasn't a word). A levitating stone of magic. It wasn't like he hadn't seen weirder things, right?

The bond was first full of curiosity and bewilderment, Loki's nail touched the stone; then came the dawning shock of surprise, the awe and wonder, and then that need. That clawing greed and the want to _possess_ and _take_ and _have_ , _have_ , _have_! Tony's eyes went from stone to Loki's face all the while, and he had to give it to him, that poker face was impressive. The only change was the slight widening of the eyes during the 'surprise' part. Loki's stillness during the now spiralling merry-go-round of ' _want, want, want_ ' and ' _need, need, need_ ' was utterly terrifying.

"Loki?" Nothing. Just Loki's gaze fixed on that stone and Tony's hand being crushed by a bone-bending force. The bond just continued to scream the same emotions in his mind. Alongside an overwhelming sense of alarm that didn't come from Loki. It probably came from Tony. Or Lady Fate, or their soul or whatever. Tony didn't care where it came from, because it was fucking right: something was very, very wrong.

"LOKI!" Still fucking nothing. Tony's hand was about to be reduced to bloody pulp if he didn't do something. So he did the first stupid thing that came to mind; he pushed Loki's finger aside and covered the stone with his palm – he wasn't crazy though, he didn't touch the levitating, shining thing – and the reaction was immediate. Loki gasped, jerked back, let go of Tony's hand and managed to actually fall on his arse in a very undignified sprawl. Tony would have laughed if the situation hadn't been so utterly not-funny.

"What the Hell just happened?" he asked. Loki's gaze was glazed and he was breathing hard, but his eyes slowly cleared and he finally looked at Tony.

"I— I apologise. I just— That. I believe that stone might be a forgotten relic from the most formidable of legends, and… You cannot fathom the things I could do if such an artefact was in my possession."

"Well, not to burst your bubble princess, but it _was_ in your possession. Like, just a few days ago. And what you did with it didn't look that impressive to me."

"No, I— _I_ wasn't the one trying to take over this Realm. The Mad Titan was poisoning my mind. Using the dampening and controlling encasement that hid the stone from me, and me from it. Now though." Loki's eyes glazed over again. "With this I could rule this Realm in less than a heartbeat."

No emotions were coming from the bond and Tony's blood ran cold. "Over my dead body." That had the merit to make Loki's eyes clear and widen, at least. The bond flared to life with an indignant squeak and a hint of anger.

"I don't want to rule this Realm!" The anger was edged on Loki's face now. "I don't want to rule any place! I'm sick and tired of royalty and politics and the bane of my bloodline. I don't want the responsibility of such power – everything I touch turns to ash."

"To ice, you mean."

Loki growled. An honest to God snarl like a rabid wolf – and why the Hell did that make Tony tingle all over? And tingle even more in a place that should not be associated with Loki? Tony felt his body start to heat up under Loki's crimson glare, and he really, really needed to find a way to change the direction of his subconscious' thoughts. "Sorry. That is actually probably very racist, in an alien kind of way. I say stupid shit sometimes. Just so you know."

"I had noticed."

"Why do I feel like you're thinking I say stupid shit all the time?"

Loki simply lifted an eyebrow and stood up in such a gracious and dignified way that Tony had to bite the inside of his lip so that he wouldn't comment on it. Or let his thoughts wander in the wrong direction. Stone. Let's concentrate on that supposedly super-powerful-magical-glowing stone.

"Okay, so. A legendary-level magical item. You say it could make you super strong, so why didn't Thanos just give it to you like this?"

"If he had, he wouldn't have been able to influence my mind. I would not have invaded this Realm for his sake had I known what hid behind the Mad Titan's suppressing magic. I wonder if… But he must have known what he had in his possession, surely. Why would he—"

"Give it to you? And risk it falling in the enemy's hand? That's what I was wondering."

Loki hummed noncommittally and stared at the stone again. Tony wondered if he would have to intervene again and just hide the whole weapon away if it hypnotised Loki and brought the call of ever-addictive power to his mind – and the bond – once more. But this time Loki's stare was merely one of reflection and guarded consideration.

"The Mad Titan wants Midgard. Midgard is the easiest access to the rest of the Nine Realms – strategically it is the best battleground for an army his size. He could annex Midgard, and Asgard would send its armies here to fight, as it has done in the past. That would leave Asgard vulnerable; Asgard is the peacekeeper of the Nine Realms and not all are satisfied with that. Thanos could then coax the other Realms into make an alliance and attack Asgard as one."

"What's his beef with Asgard anyway?"

Loki turned away from the stone and looked at Tony, head cocked to the side. "Beef?"

"Oh. Err, what's his problem with Asgard?"

"I am unsure. All I know is that he means to invade it."

"And so his big plan was to send you, with a super strong weapon in hand but that you couldn't fully use, so that you could find another super strong portal-making device to bring his army over? That sounds like a shaky plan to me. I mean, now his army is destroyed, he has no portal, and he lost you and his weapon. This Thanos guy doesn't look like such a big threat to me, based on this."

Loki scowled. "You shouldn't underestimate the Mad Titan. The only reason why his plan failed is because he could not have known that I would find my soulmate and that he consequently would lose control over my mind."

"Yeah, I'm not so sure he would have won anyway. Even if we weren't soulmates."

"Why am I not surprised," Loki deadpanned, and Tony could clearly hear the 'silly mortals' that Loki was broadcasting through his tone.

"Lucky for him there actually was a portal-making device on Earth anyway. Otherwise his plan would have sucked even more."

"The Tesseract's presence on Midgard is well-known among magic-wielders – it's exact location was unknown, like the story of your Holy Grail, but the legend of the Tesseract being hidden on Midgard by Asgardians many millennia ago is no secret. Not many agree on the Cube's origins or its exact powers, but all stories revolve about travelling great distances."

"Another legendary-level magical item, then."

"Indeed."

"You'd think a guy like Thanos would like to keep items like these" – Tony grabbed the sceptre's base and lifted the weapon off the scanner's stand – "close instead of sending it with his goons to the frontlines. No offense."

"Indeed. If I am right… The Legend of the Infinity Stones states that the Celestial Entities trapped six aspects of the universe into stones of infinite energy; Power, Time, Space, Mind, Reality and Soul. If someone powerful enough managed to bring them all together… They could alter the very fabric of the universe. It is not an artifact you part with lightly."

"Why does this sound like the plot of a bad Fantasy movie?" Tony muttered.

Loki ignored him. "If I am right and this stone is the Mind…"

"That explains why people could be controlled by the sceptre, then. Wait, can it still do that?" Tony looked at the weapon he was holding. "Should I not be holding this?"

"I am not feeling any malicious energy from this stone. And you would not know how to activate it anyway. You are in no danger."

"In no danger. Somehow that never seems to apply to me. So, this could be the Mind, you say? What are the others again?"

"Soul, Reality, Power, Time and Space."

"Space? As in the void of space, or the vastness of space? Or the capacity to travel through the vastness of space with, say, a portal?" Loki's eyes widened. "I mean, if there was a stone hidden inside the sceptre, can there be a stone hidden inside the Tesseract too? 'Cause that could be a reason for Thanos to take a gamble and risk one of these stones if you can gain an important stronghold and a second stone at the end of it." He wasn't sure Loki was breathing at this point. "Two stones in the hands of Thanos' armies during the invasion? No way that that would be a coincidence. Not if he's trying to catch'em all and become the Stone Master, right?" Tony wasn't sure Loki was listening anymore, his look was lightyears away. "And, like, rule the universe?" The bond was doing weird, weird things in the back of Tony's mind. "And all he wants us to do is surrender now or prepare to fight? Meowth, that's right?"

That, at least, seemed to wake Loki up – though Tony doubted it was the Pokemon reference that did it. The bond was going haywire with an unfathomable mix of feelings – Tony himself didn't even know _what_ to feel at this point, he couldn't even believe his own hypothesis, it looked so much like a movie plot – and Loki just. Took two steps towards him. Grabbed his face with both hands. And planted a cold, crazily soft and slightly wet kiss on his lips. There was a little too much force put behind it, and Tony was pretty sure that hard thing that pressed against his lower lip was the edge of a sharp canine. It didn't last long, he was sure, but somehow it felt like it lasted forever – he squashed down the voice telling him _it wasn't nearly long enough_ because what the fuck was that about. Then Loki stepped back, let go of his face and looked him square in the eye.

"You're a genius."

Tony wanted to answer with an obnoxious 'of course' or even a theatrical 'why, thank you, dear' but no sound was coming out of his open mouth. Except maybe for a pathetic, wheezing squeak. And really, he should close his mouth, he must look like an idiot. But his brain just wasn't cooperating – has stopped working. MindTM is checking for a solution to the problem. Please wait.

Let's recapitulate. Tony had made a hypothesis about Thanos' motives and the nature of the Tesseract. Loki had liked that hypothesis so much he had. Done that. You know. Made their lips touch. In his excitement. You know, in the same way you could jokingly say 'I love you' and 'marry me' when someone is doing something amazing. Tony had done that before. He'd never used a kiss like that, but… Cultural differences, right? Just like the French kissed— No, no, no, he wasn't gonna think about French kissing! But, you know, they touched cheeks or whatever. And the Germans kissed each other on the mouth as a greeting between friends. He'd seen that a while back when he was visiting Berlin. This was just an Asgardian thing. Nothing more. He was the one overthinking the whole issue. Loki was totally fine.

And for God's sake, it was just a kiss! And a super chaste kiss at that! How many people had Tony kissed in his life? And he meant _kissed_ -kissed. Tons, exactly! This was nothing! Nothing at all. And they were soulmates anyway – they held hands at night, they couldn't keep secrets, and they could feel _each other's feeling_ for crying out loud! (Loki was a huge mix of excitement and wonder and a hint of embarrassment at the moment). What was a kiss compared to all of those things? Exactly, this was nothing. Never mind that Tony's face was burning – more like his whole body was burning – and Loki's face had gone way bluer from the neck up. This. Was. _Nothing_.

There. Issue resolved. Restarting .

Tony cleared his throat. "So. If we're right about these things being those stones. Maybe Thanos wants to rule the universe with them. What do we do?"

"There is not much we _can_ do. Not by ourselves. Asgard needs to be warned, in case we are right. Alliances would need to be made before Thanos has the means to. It would probably be best to mount a counterattack before he has the time to regroup. There certainly is enough reason to officially declare a war, given the Mad Titan's attempt to invade Midgard. And if Asgard and Midgard officially become allies, Odin would have to lend his resources to defeat this common foe."

"An alliance. Between Asgard and Earth. That's gonna be a pain, you realise. Earth is not exactly united. This ain't Star Trek. We're not ready for the Federation."

"Technically the alliance might not need to be public. It is your best fighters and your best weapons that Asgard would want pledged – only those concerned would need to know."

"Like, don't make the whole word panic under the impending doom of interstellar war. Got ya. As long as you Viking types don't want to seal the deal with a marriage and the merging of assets… I don't think we have any princesses that would fit the bill."

Loki smirked. "Not to worry. You 'fit the bill' just fine, Princess Tony Stark of Midgard."

Tony gaped. "Fuck you. I'm not a princess!"

"And yet you are already married to a prince."

That… Tony had forgotten Asgard's view on soulmates for a sec' there. "Oh God. I'm already the designated ambassador of Earth, aren't I? We're doomed. We're so, so doomed. Unmarry me. It can't be me. I'm the worst ever person for this job."

"I disagree. You are the one who, simply with your ideas, might save billions of lives and stop an intergalactic war in its tracks."

"Yeah, right. I only got there because you knew what these stones are and what they can do. You're the one with all the knowledge and wisdom."

"And you are the one who connected the dots. I do not understand why you insist on constantly selling yourself short—"

"I don't! I'm an arrogant son of a bitch! Everyone says so! And anyway, you're one to talk, Mister look-at-me-I'm-a-poor-orphan-and-no-one-loves-me. You're a fucking prince, with a brother who's ready to murder for you, with magic, and super strength, and you're super smart, and handsome, and—"

"Then I suppose we are more alike than we want to admit."

Tony wanted to argue back. Really, he did. He just didn't know what to say. They weren't that much alike. They were from a different species, born in different millennia for God's sake! They weren't the same at all. The only thing they had truly in common was their soul – but what was a soul, if it wasn't the 'essence' of oneself? Was there any way for them to not be 'essentially' the same? This was getting way too philosophical for Tony's taste.

"What should we do with this?" Tony shook the sceptre to make his point.

"It would be prudent to put it in your vault for now. And it might be safer to send it to Asgard as soon as possible, as Thanos will ultimately have more difficulty getting into Asgard's vault than yours."

"Right." Tony started walking towards the safe, Loki falling into step behind him. "How are we gonna tell Asgard all this, though?"

"That should be simple enough. We only have to call upon Heimdall."

"I see. Sure." Whatever that meant. "And then what?"

"Then we tell him that the one behind the attack upon Midgard is the Mad Titan, Thanos, and that we believe that his ultimate goal, apart from capturing Midgard and laying waste to Asgard, is to find all the Infinity Stones. And that we came to that conclusion because we believe he already had such a stone, Mind, in the form of this sceptre you are holding, and that the Tesseract Cube that he sent me to collect and use probably has Space within it. And then Heimdall will pass that message on to the Allfather."

"Uhuh." J.A.R.V.I.S. opened the safe and they stepped inside. "And how are you going to call upon that Heim-whatever?"

"I already did."

"What? When?"

"Just now."

Tony frowned. "I thought you couldn't use too much of your mojo? Interstellar calls can't be cheap, energy-wise."

"Heimdall is the one who uses his 'mojo'. Heimdall is the guardian of the rainbow bridge and his gaze spans the Nine Realms. Whenever someone calls his name, his gaze is drawn towards them."

"I am ever gonna feel like I didn't just fall through the looking-glass when you explain something? A guy who can see you from planets away. And who can hear you call him. That is just— Wait, it's not like a phone call, if he can always see you. It's a one-way Skype. What if you're, like, not in a state to be seen or something? That must be pretty embarrassing." Tony put the sceptre in an empty locker inside the safe and they turned to make their way out.

"Then I would suggest not calling upon him in those situations."

"Why are you smirking?" Loki remained silent. "Oh! There's a story there, isn't there! You called him to force him to look at embarrassing stuff, didn't you?"

"I might have, once or twice." That was such a big lie the bond almost stabbed Tony in the chest. "When Thor was doing reprehensible things in his drunken stupor, for instance."

"Oh my God, you pestered the poor Heimdall guy all the time, didn't you? You almost make me want to apologise for your behaviour even though I didn't do anything and I don't even know him. You're the worst." Tony laughed to swallow the last words he'd almost added; 'I love it'. He was too late to stop his fist from bumping against Loki's naked shoulder, though. They really, really needed to put their shirts back on. And then it dawned upon Tony that the Heimdall guy had probably seen that too – them being half naked.

Loki had of course to say Tony exactly what he didn't want to hear. "I feel like I should tell you that Heimdall does not have to be called upon to be able to turn his gaze towards you."

"You mean, like, he could be the universe's biggest pervert for all we know?"

"He just heard you say that, you realise."

"Oh shit. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply anything, Mr Heimdall. Though really, now that I remember you're listening: are you? A pervert?"

Loki burst out laughing and a smile tugged at Tony's lips. In the next step Loki bumped his shoulder – well, his upper arm, really, with the unfair height difference – against Tony's shoulder. A second later there was a blue arm draped over Tony's shoulder, and Tony shivered. He shivered because the skin was a bit chilly. He totally did _not_ shiver for any other reason. (Also, his lips didn't tingle _at all_ in remembrance of earlier).

"You really ought to meet Heimdall. I assure, you would never dare ask such a question if you were standing in front of him."

"You'd be surprised. I'm suicidal like tha—"

A dark shape suddenly dropped from the ceiling right in front of them, and Tony screamed.

* * *

There you go! A kiss, people! An honest-to-God kiss! Sure, it was super underwhelming, but it was still better than nothing, yeah? And we're pretty much finished with all the continuous magic-mojo-stuff :) AKA this is a great chapter XD

And now you get to wonder what the dark shape is until I manage to post another chapter, say in a few months :p Do debate in the comments to vent your frustration at my tendency to stop at cliff-hangers, mwahhahaha!

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	29. Chapter 29

Helooooo! Look who's back for the last time in 2018? Hope you all had a nice Christmas time, and I wish you a happy new year :) May 2019 be better than 2018 ;)

Here's my gift to you, I hope you like it well enough.

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _Loki burst out laughing and a smile tugged at Tony's lips. In the next step Loki bumped his shoulder – well, his upper arm, really, with the unfair height difference – against Tony's shoulder. A second later there was a blue arm draped over Tony's shoulder, and Tony shivered. He shivered because the skin was a bit chilly. He totally did not shiver for any other reason. (Also, his lips didn't tingle at all in remembrance of earlier)._

" _You really ought to meet Heimdall. I assure you, you would never dare ask such a question if you were standing in front of him."_

" _You'd be surprised. I'm suicidal like tha—"_

 _A dark shape suddenly dropped from the ceiling right in front of them, and Tony screamed._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 29**

He did not scream like a fairy tale princess, thank you very much. His scream was very manly, if slightly high-pitched. And he had totally not plastered himself against his soulmate's side – Loki had pulled him close. Which to be fair was not totally untrue. It was a joint effort, that's what it was. A defence mechanism, nothing more.

Clint – the bastard – stood up from his crouch. "Fucking finally! Do you have any idea how long I've been stuck in that vent? Your robot butler stopped me from getting out and threatened to electrocute me if I tried to bypass—" He stopped short and looked them up and down properly. "Ooookay, mind putting on some clothes? I'm not a big fan of PDA." Tony quickly stepped away from Loki's side, breaking the bond's pulsing connection. "But it does answer my question of what the hell was taking you so long. Pretty sure dinner's cold by now, if there's anything left at all. I didn't even get to eat more than one egg roll before Coulson roped me into getting you two." Clint crossed his arms, frown firmly in place.

"I feel like I've said this way too often, but this. Is. Not. What. You. Think!" Tony said, breathing hard and feeling flustered. It wasn't what Clint thought, it wasn't! But they'd had quite a bit more bare-chested action than might be seen strictly appropriate for a, you know, normal platonic friendship between guys. Also, the kiss. Well, the barely there peck on the lips. Let's not make a big deal out of it.

"Why do you keep putting yourselves in situations that make it look like something when it isn't anything? People aren't gonna believe you for long if you keep doing it." Even Clint looked pretty sceptical when he said that, as if he didn't believe them now.

"The— the shirtlessness was necessary for a better magical connection," Tony explained.

"Yeah, right," Clint said with a disbelieving snort, the bastard.

"It was!" Tony turned towards Loki. "You tell him."

"It was necessary," was all Loki said.

"Gee, thanks," Tony muttered. He closed his eyes for a second and took a calming breath. Right. Learn how to be clear and concise, Stark. Clear and concise. "We needed a good magical connection to exorcize the sceptre. Which we did. And it was a long process, which is why we couldn't come up earlier. And a dangerous process, potentially, which is why J.A.R.V.I.S. locked up there. Though to be fair you wouldn't have been stuck in a vent if you hadn't _crawled up the vent_!"

"It was more like crawling down, but sure. Let's say I believe you."

"Yes, let's!" Tony growled. God, how come Clint got even more on his nerves than… than… Capsicle and his old-fashioned righteousness? Probably just because Clint was a jerk.

"Did you manage to exorcise the sceptre?"

"Yes!" Tony half-yelled, exasperated, just as Loki calmly replied: "We did."

"Great. And was does exorcizing that thing actually mean?"

Tony let out a frustrated roar of mangled outrage. Clint was doing it purpose, wasn't he? He had to. He was doing everything in his power to be excruciatingly annoying, no doubt about it. That fucker. Tony wanted to kick something, preferably Clint's crotch. Repeatedly. That would teach him not to drop out of vents in front of his face and doubt everything he said and then act like a clueless idiot.

A cool hand landed on Tony's shoulder, accompanied by a breeze of calm and control through the bond, and Tony felt himself exhale slowly without his own consent, as if his anger was being leeched out of him somehow. "Calm, kærr. Calm, elskan mín," Loki murmured, his voice low and soothing, vibrating through Tony's very core.

Loki turned his attention to Clint, yet he kept his hand firmly on Tony's shoulder. "It means that the Mad Titan's power no longer lingers around the sceptre's core. We are therefore out of danger, for now."

Tony stiffened at the lie that pinched him in the chest at the very end of Loki's statement, and he did his best not to react to it. He shouldn't call him out in front of Clint; they were trying to convince him of the necessity of their shirtlessness and seclusion. Revealing that Loki was lying about something would be extremely counterproductive.

"Awesome. Does that mean you can put your shirts back on and go up to dinner? Pretty please?"

Tony's twitch of annoyance was interrupted by Loki squeezing his shoulder – he guessed it was supposed to be a gesture of reassurance or something, but it was more like his muscled being grinded to pulp. Stupid aliens and their stupid strength that they didn't know how to control. Tony tugged his shoulder out of harm's way and went to grab his shirt, picking up Loki's and throwing it in his bewildered blue face.

He didn't look when Loki pulled his tee over his head and the raised swirling lines on his skin disappeared. He could still remember their pattern even as he looked at the cotton that covered them, anyway. It was the downside of having a genius-level memory; his mind's eye was very good at remembering patterns and superposing images. No, wait, why should this be a problem? It wasn't as if he was in any way phased by Loki's naked torso. Being a genius was great!

"Come _on_ , Stark! Get dressed and let's go!"

"What? You embarrassed by my awesomely manly torso, Clint?" Tony wiggled his eyebrows and Clint's face contorted in a strange grimace, as if he was both disgusted and wanted to laugh at the same time, the arsehole. "And I told you, birdbrain, it's Tony," Tony ground out.

"Maybe if I wasn't starving I'd remember your name, genius!"

Tony inhaled, ready to deliver some sort of scathing response – he didn't know what yet, but his _genius_ brain would find something, no worries – and was stopped by the return of the dreaded shoulder squeeze. Though this time, it was more like a human shoulder squeeze, thank God. He didn't need his shoulder to become as blue as his soulmate's.

"Tony. I will go to dinner without you if you do not hurry." Loki said, and that was a lie. Tony's chest unexpectedly heated up at the thought that Loki wouldn't leave him behind, even if it was just to find food. Unless it was that he didn't want to confront the other Avengers on his own. Right, that had to be it. "I am rather famished," Loki added, and Tony felt like that was a huge understatement. Tony was rather famished. Loki was probably ready to eat a whole cow or something.

"Yes, _Tony_ , listen to your space princess," Clint said before skipping ahead towards the elevator. He pushed the button but nothing happened – no light appeared around said button, the doors didn't open, and Clint stood there like an idiot, stabbing the button like that would solve the problem. Tony looked up at the nearest camera and the dot of light blinked. Tony smiled as he put his shirt back on. J.A.R.V.' was such a good boy. "Tony. Your house sucks."

"Don't be a dick. My tower doesn't suck, it just survived an alien attack! Everything is working pretty fine, all things considered."

"We're not waking all the way up to the kitchen, dude!"

"For the record, you can't walk up to the kitchen. There are no stairs here."

"Yeah, I know, I had to use the vent because you are a crazy fucker who doesn't even follow proper construction regulations. Where's the emergency exit in case the elevator's broken?"

Tony pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "This is also a garage, dickhead. You can walk out that way."

"I do not care how we get to dinner. I only know that if we were to truly be stuck here, I am eating _you_."

Tony's head whirled towards Loki when he realised this strange statement only felt like a half-lie. Loki's head was cocked to the side, pointy teeth bared and red eyes gleaming, like a predator taunting its prey. And said prey was looking back at Loki, then at Tony with slowly widening eyes, back plastered against the elevator doors.

Clint's hands came up in a sign of surrender. "Stark— Tony. Don't let Fiona eat me, I beg of you. I have a nest full of chicks that need feeding." Clint made some attempt at puppy dog eyes, and it looked like it could be surprisingly effective – if his opponent was anyone but Loki. Loki's fiery gaze remained unchanged. "What would they do without me?" he pleaded in a half-whine so fake it made the whole puppy-dog eyes completely ineffective regardless.

"They'd be better off, that's what would happen. You not afraid of being eaten? 'Cause I can tell you, he's only half kidding."

Clint's jaw twitched and his usual I'm-a-crazy-assassin-and-you've-got-no-idea face came back on. "Nat' threatens to eat me every two days, so I guess I've just been desensitised. So sorry I couldn't muster up more genuine emotions for you," he said, smirking.

"The Black Widow must have a lot of restraint," Loki commented.

Tony smirked and walked up to the elevator doors and they opened instantly. "That depends. Either she _has_ a lot of restraint, repressing her spidery instincts and all, or… She doesn't have to. Because Clint ain't triggering her instincts, if you know what I mean."

"Ha! Don't worry, I'm triggering her instincts all right!" Clint scoffed as the doors closed, and winced half a second later.

"I knew it! How long have you two been together?" Clint's mouth was a straight, unhappy line. "Come on, you can tell me! I won't repeat it to anyone. Pinkie-swear." It was really hard not to burst out laughing at Clint's sour look, but Tony proudly controlled his mirth.

"Since the… battle against the Chitauri was won," Loki said, and Clint's eyes bulged.

"How the hell do you—" The elevator doors opened and Loki walked out, Clint on his heels.

"You do realise I asked you all you knew about your fellow Avengers when the sceptre controlled us both, do you not?" Loki said as they walked into the kitchen and its long table all set and ready to cater to them all. It looked like no one had actually started eating, and Tony felt a twinge of guilt. "You were very… effusive when it came to Natasha Romanoff," Loki continued, ignoring Clint's dawning horror once he'd noticed the kitchen wasn't empty.

There was Cap with wet hair and an almost see-through white tee that left nothing to the imagination leaning with his back against the kitchen counter, and next to him Phil in a simple blue button-up with a tablet. Both their heads had turned towards them at Loki's voice, and Phil's eyebrows were doing some kind of surprised-frown-twitch. Obviously Phil didn't know that the hawk and the spider were playing Tetris under the sheets, otherwise Clint wouldn't have looked like he'd just been dragged to the electric chair.

Loki continued speaking as if he was blind to the dread that was thick in the air. "It was rather obvious from the way you spoke then that while your feelings were strong, they had not been returned in any physical manner." Loki's upper lip jerked up once and Tony could feel his own lips wanting to stretch of their own accord into a giant smirk. Ah. So Loki knew exactly what he was doing. Tony didn't know why that should surprise him. Silvertongue and God of Chaos, wasn't that how Thor had described him at some point on the Helicarrier? "After the battle, however, you were both reeking of each other – even your magic signatures look similar at the edges now – and that has not changed ever since. I therefore have to assume that you are—"

"Dude!" Clint hissed, but Loki ignored him.

"—getting as close as mortally possible." Loki cocked his head innocently. "Am I wrong?"

Clint's face was white as a sheet, his eyes darting from Phil to the darkened corridor on the right. Tony squinted. There was an outline there that could only have been human, and he didn't need Natasha to step forward to know that had to be her.

"You can _smell_ when people had intercourse?" Phil said, breaking the sudden breathless silence. "Don't answer that, of course you do. Tell me more about the magic, though. How can sex change people's magic? We don't even know how to use it. Ah, unless that is what they mean when they say it was 'magical'. Tell us, Agent Barton, would you describe your experience as magical?"

Tony loved Phil. Had he ever told him that? He should, he totally should. That guy was perfect – well, almost. He worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., was the Deputy Director even, but he was on some sort of babysitting holiday right now. Almost perfect. Phil obviously knew Clint and Natasha had been going at it – sure, it had seemed very probable to Tony, but then he had thought they'd had to have been together since forever and if Loki was right about it not being the case… Phil just acted like that was totally not an issue even though Clint seemed to think this revelation was the end of the universe. And Phil obviously pinpointed the more interesting matter and focused on that – magic – and Tony completely agreed with that method. Interrogating Loki about magic should be anyone's priority, really.

Loki smirked. "Surely you do not believe I will reveal my secrets for free?"

Phil's gaze turned frightfully calculating. "What do you want?"

Loki sniffed disdainfully. "Food. Obviously."

"Deal. You can have all the Peking Duck. It's the best I've ever tasted. J.A.R.V.I.S. knows what he'd doing, that's for sure."

"Thank you, Phil," J.A.R.V.I.S. answered. What the hell? ' _Phil'_? Had Coulson already corrupted his baby boy?

Loki hummed. "Deal."

And that is when it dawned on Tony that J.A.R.V.' had ordered the food, and if it was Peking Duck… "Hey, wait a sec'! J.A.R.V., is this from Buddakan?"

"It is, Sir."

"No way you're getting all the duck! It's paid with my money, I'm entitled to the best Peking Duck New York has to offer!"

Phil came over to the table and picked up a huge dish covered in at least five layers of aluminium foil. He took a healthy step back. "Perhaps we can come to an agreement, _if_ you have valuable information for me, Stark."

"I can tell you stuff about magic too, I've been studying it all day. Oh, and we exorcised the sceptre." Phil's eyebrows went up at that, and Tony knew he was hooked. Now he just had to reel him in gently. "We can now safely send it up to Asgard and be rid of whatever doom that thing is going to bring if we give it up to S.H.I.E.L.D.. No offense." Loki's amusement flared at the blatant lie of those last two words. "Though of course the fine details probably won't interest you," Tony added, and bingo! Phil was caught. Tony was getting that duck.

"All right, how about you two share the duck?"

"Deal," was Loki's immediate response, the idiot. Didn't they know bargaining over there in Asgard? Phil handed the dish to Loki, and Loki turned to Tony with a mischievous glint in his eye, and that was when Tony realised that Loki did know how to bargain and he was probably about to lose big time. "Let's make this short, shall we? I have all the leverage and you have none – you cannot stop me from taking all of this duck. Therefore you have no reason to complain if I magnanimously give you a tenth, knowing that you could very well have none. Deal?"

Tony sighed. It was a totally unfair deal, but to be honest he was tired and hungry, and it was a big dish, right? A tenth was still a nice enough amount. "Fine. Deal."

"Great," said Phil. "Let's finally have dinner, people!" Natasha shuffled in from her dark corridor, soon followed by Bruce. "And Clint, no more egg rolls for you."

Tony sank down in the nearest chair to the grating melody of Clint's discordant whines, and whished dinner was already over.

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Tony had been rather silent since the beginning of dinner, eating his food sullenly and without the gusto that his empty stomach should have occasioned, and Loki did not like it at all. _He_ was supposed to be the one that sulked moodily for some reason or other, not his soulmate. Tony was the one that could break the tension in any type of situation – even if breaking that tension made the situation worse. Loki doubted that whatever he said would help – he did not have Tony's mysterious power that made him instantly likable to all. (He was loath to admit that it unfortunately reminded him of Thor). It was more than just charm; it was like he managed to somehow enchant anyone who spoke to him.

Loki touched the side of his arm to Tony's, re-establishing their soul's full connection, but it was not as noticeable as he had hoped. All their time touching earlier must have soothed their soul enough for quite some time to come. It didn't even look like Tony was aware they were touching, and that was just unacceptable. Loki put down his… chopsticks, what that what they called these? And stopped all pretence of eating.

He concentrated on subtly sending… something. He definitely did his best not to send his frustration along. But what he should call this wish for Tony to be more himself, to be less morose and more buoyant, he did not know. He was sending something along, that was certain. There was a sort of puzzlement growing on Tony's side of the bond from whatever he was doing, but nothing else unfortunately.

There was tugging around his heart. Dot-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot-dot, dot-dash, dash. It took Loki a second to translate the Morse code into letters again. 'WHAT' was the word Tony had sent him. What was he supposed to answer to that? The whole reason why he had decided not to approach the issue with words was because he was not sure how to explain himself. He therefore decided upon something more obvious. 'YOU SHOULD EAT' he sent, and he had barely finished spelling the last word before Tony was replying.

'I AM.' It technically wasn't a lie; he was eating tiny morsels of a selection of dishes, but definitely not the amount he should be eating, especially after all the magic they had used today. Loki felt very hungry and tired after all the energy they had spent. A Midgardian had to feel the effects even more.

'EAT NORMALLY,' Loki sent, and all he received in response was anger and a hearty tug on their soul bond that would have made him teeter sideways if his arm hadn't already rested against Tony's. It took everything Loki had not to escalate this and tug back; Tony was young. It did not matter how Tony thought about their age difference and their age equivalences – Loki had still lived a staggering amount of mortal years, and it was time to use the experience he had gotten from it to _control himself_. 'YOU SHOULD EAT MORE FOR YOUR HEALTH AS YOU USED A LOT OF MAGIC TODAY,' he sent – it took some time to send but Tony understood it all right.

The sigh that exploded from Tony's lips was long and loud, and even the bond seemed to sigh along in exasperation. The 'FINE' Tony sent him even had a petulant quality to it, but at least he picked up some food and shove it into his mouth with exaggerated force. Loki kept his smirk in check and surreptitiously pulled some dishes closer to Tony's plate. And then he thought, to Helheimr with it, and simply emptied a whole dish of dumplings – what a silly name – that Tony seemed to go back to again and again onto his soulmate's plate.

"Uhm," was all that Tony said, chopsticks frozen in the air.

"As I said. You need to eat more."

"Yeah but can I at least _choose_ what I get to eat?"

"You like those," Loki said, pointing at the dumplings with his own chopsticks.

"True, but how do _you_ know that? I didn't say anything about it."

"You had a number of them on your plate already," Loki said before he could stop himself.

Tony's mouth tightened in a very straight line. "And the truth?"

"The moment you saw them I could feel you wanted them. Because even though I had no idea what these 'dumplings' were, I suddenly wanted to have those specific ones, which means it was a transference from the bond."

There was a spike of annoyance and exasperation, and Tony grunted. "I really need to learn the shielding bubble thing. Teach me."

"Let us perhaps finish eating first." And then that particular issue would perhaps conveniently slip his soulmate's mind again. Loki liked the fact Tony could not hide much from him. He knew it was unfair, and were their roles reversed Loki would not fare well – he would have demanded the instructions to the shield building immediately and practised until he had made it work.

"I can multitask, thank you very much. Start talking, Grover."

"You might want to multitask less and eat more, as it seems you have not been faring well with the latter."

"Perhaps if my brain has something to do it will forget the protests of my stomach and I'll eat more. Ever think about that?"

"Did I ever think that occupying your mind would make you eat?"

"Yeah."

"I am uncertain."

"Is that a way to not say yes or no so that the bond doesn't know what to make of it? 'Cause I still feel a kind of tingling behind the Arc reactor. So it ain't working, sorry."

"I take back what I said," Barton said with his mouth full. "Dinner was totally worth the wait."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Tony said, pointing his chopsticks at the archer, his building anger flaring – but at least it was not directed at Loki. And the mind shielding was forgotten once again. Loki sighed internally in relief and Tony's head swivelled back towards him instantly, chopsticks following close behind. "Don't think you're off the hook, _dearie_. You are teaching me that shield bubble _tonight_." He turned back to Barton. "And what the hell is your problem?"

"I don't have a problem. That's the whole point. I had a problem. Now I don't anymore. Thank you."

"Are you saying _my_ problems are entertainment to you?"

"Oh, you were you fighting? I'm sorry, I hadn't noticed," Barton said with a cheeky smirk and next to him Romanoff rolled her eyes. "Trouble in paradise? You seemed so chummy earlier, you even had your tops off and all. What was it for again? Was it open communication? Maybe you should take off more next time if your communication wasn't good enough."

"It was for _magic_ —" Tony said through gritted teeth while the bond flared up in an explosion of mixed emotions.

"Thank you, Agent Barton. We will take your… advise into consideration," Loki answered with a smirk of his own.

Tony sputtered and savagely attacked a dumpling with his chopsticks, piercing it in the process. "The only reason we ever touch is for the _bond_ and for _magic._ " The bond buzzed with Tony's heated feelings but Loki could not read them, too focused on keeping a tight lid on his own heartache the reality of that phrase brought up. His jaw tensed with the effort and he felt Romanoff's gaze as if he had just lit the fire of a signalling beacon. He took a bite of duck and did not look in her direction. "Do you honestly think I'd go take off my shirt to stand in front of that bloody sceptre if I could help it?" Tony continued.

"You said you 'exorcized' the sceptre," Coulson said with sceptical eyebrows.

Tony started to explain the whole process of his understanding of magic and the removal of the Mad Titan's taint, and Loki stopped listening. He concentrated on eating and surreptitiously adding food on Tony's plate. Tony was so distracted by his story-telling that he didn't seem to realise how much food he was consuming in between two paragraphs of his convoluted explanation – if Coulson's eye-twitching was anything to go by, he was not understanding half of it, and to be fair, if Loki had not known what his soulmate was talking about it in the first place, he would not have been able to understand most of it either. The conversation moved from the taint to their discovery of the sceptre's core, and the tension rose palpably around the table.

"Wait. You're saying that the sceptre and the Tesseract are both made with those… stones?" Doctor Banner asked.

"Yep. They're what Thanos wants, we recon. And knowing he wants to come here to get to Asgard, we better send it to Asgard's magical dungeons that he can't easily get to. Or so I hear. We got two out of six, that ain't too bad, right?"

"That would depend upon the whereabouts of those Infinity Stones. If the Mad Titan has more of them…" Loki trailed off.

Tony turned towards Loki. "You didn't see any other stones with him, right?"

"I wouldn't know. I was not aware they were not mere legend when I was in his presence. I did not spend much time in his presence anyhow; his subordinate, The Other, was the one bringing word of the Mad Titan to me more often than not. Furthermore, my memories of that time feel somewhat muddled. A blessing and a curse both."

Tony turned back towards Coulson. "Anyway, our biggest chance to win this is to strike first. Well, Thanos struck first, but you know what I mean. We gotta take the fight to him. Not give him time to regroup and wait here like perfect little sitting ducks."

"Take the fight to where?" Captain Rogers asked.

"Wherever Thanos is," Tony answered, his tone exasperated. Barton rolled his eyes and Loki couldn't deny he had felt the urge as well.

Rogers' lips pursed. "Like on another planet? How? Are you hiding a rocket in your basement too?"

Loki could feel Tony's mirth grow exponentially, ready to explode into raucous laughter, and Loki yanked at their soul bond. Tony's body pitched sideways, their shoulders knocking together, and Tony's lungs exploded into choked coughs. "What the… Hell…" he managed to say between two breaths, obviously asking with his bewilderment why Loki had done that, but Loki royally ignored him. Now was to the time to antagonise the leader of the Avengers; they needed all the help they could get if defeating the Mad Titan one day was what the Norns had in store.

"While we do not know where the Mad Titan currently is, we can assume that he will come for the stones we have eventually, and Asgard can provide for transport to most places, once the Allfather has been informed, and convinced, of our hypothesis."

"Hypothesis. How sure are you about this?" Coulson asked.

"I must admit that more research would need to be done on the subject. Loath as I am to admit, the Allfather might be able to shed some light on the situation. If he were to observe both the cube and the sceptre's cores, surely he would come to the same conclusion as I. We will have to wait for Thor's return so that he may take the stone and perhaps advocate an official alliance between Asgard and Midgard, if you are so inclined."

"If we are— you realise that Earth is anything but united, right?" Coulson said. "Getting something like the U.N. to sign off on this—"

Tony cut him off. "Yeah, that's what I said. But if we don't inform the U.N. and S.H.I.E.L.D. makes the alliance instead – Fury's gonna love that I bet – then we might be able to sort this without world-wide panic."

"Have you any idea what would happen if that information got out?"

"If it got out after we get rid of Thanos it should be pretty much fine. And if it comes out before…"

"If it comes out before," Romanoff butted in, "it will be the end of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Then I suppose that if you want your little organisation to survive, you should make certain that your subordinates know how to hold their tongue," Loki said.

The silence that followed was heavy and full of thoughtful faces. Tony's chair scraped the floor when he pushed himself away from the table. "Well, on that cheery note." Tony stood up. "I'm going to bed, I'm knackered. We can't do anything about all that until Thor comes down from heaven, so. See ya."

"You getting old? It's not even ten," Barton said, breaking the heavy mood with his unseemly snigger.

"Way past your bedtime then, wee Merida. You better hurry up and get ready before Daddy Fury sees you're still up."

Barton sputtered, and the corner of Romanoff's mouth twitched. Tony waved at them before walking straight out of the kitchen. Leaving Loki behind. All eyes were trained on him all of a sudden – the only outsider, the outlander who would not have been sitting freely among them if Tony had not been his soulmate. It was not as if Loki's skin itched to leave the room, but the curious, slightly prickly and cautiously probing magic that permeated the air unbeknownst to their owners was not exactly comfortable.

Loki couldn't help but take a sharp breath when Tony pulled on the soul bond's string. 'U COMING' was his unnecessary message. It was not like Loki found his current company especially thrilling. "I shall bid you good night as well," Loki said cordially – after being the harbinger of bad news and before that of much worse, there was no other way to act if he did not have Tony to serve as a possible defence. The sooner his magic was back to normal, the sooner he could make a quick escape if worse came to worse because of his sometimes too sharp tongue.

He could feel Tony's concentration on his exact whereabouts all the way up the steps and down the corridor to their room. The moment he walked in, Tony turned towards him, raised a glass full of amber liquid and took a hearty swig of it. "Finally. Want a drink? I think we deserve it." Loki didn't even get to answer – Tony was already pouring another glass, this one filled to the brink. "Here," he said, the drink swishing over when Tony carelessly handed it over. "You might need it. I know you don't wanna tell me about the mind bubble thing. 'Cause it gives you an advantage over me and all that. I get it. But it isn't fair and you know it. So. You're gonna teach me." He took another gulp and trained his fiery gaze on Loki.

Now it was Loki's turn to down some of his drink – a gaze like that was doing things to him that he wasn't sure he could entirely hide, even with his shielding. What else could he do if he did not want his soulmate's determination to turn to fury? "Very well. I shall explain."

* * *

All right! It's just been 29 chapters, but Tony is finally going to be taught how to keep his emotions to himself! Good news for Tony, bad news for our dear Loki ;)

Also, in the next chapter – whenever I'll have time to write that (-.-') – there will finally be something that justifies that rating I've been promising you since the beginning. It's not gonna be big, don't get your hopes up, but it's gonna be something at least. A good prospect for this new year, don't you think?

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


	30. Chapter 30

Hello there! Long time no see! Remember this 'little' fanfic that I haven't updated in months? Well, here's a 100% Tony-POV that hopefully will satisfy you :) And remember that M-rating that I promised you since the first chapter, aka 2 years ago? Well, here's the first M-rated chapter! I hope you'll like the M-ratedness of it. (It's only, like, my second time ever writing something of this nature, so. Hope it's good enough.) Don't get your hopes up too high though :p

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: _He could feel Tony's concentration on his exact whereabouts all the way up the steps and down the corridor to their room. The moment he walked in, Tony turned towards him, raised a glass full of amber liquid and took a hearty swig of it. "Finally. Want a drink? I think we deserve it." Loki didn't even get to answer – Tony was already pouring another glass, this one filled to the brink. "Here," he said, the drink swishing over when Tony carelessly handed it over. "You might need it. I know you don't wanna tell me about the mind bubble thing. 'Cause it gives you an advantage over me and all that. I get it. But it isn't fair and you know it. So. You're gonna teach me." He took another gulp and trained his fiery gaze on Loki._

 _Now it was Loki's turn to down some of his drink – a gaze like that was doing things to him that he wasn't sure he could entirely hide, even with his shielding. What else could he do if he did not want his soulmate's determination to turn to fury? "Very well. I shall explain."_

* * *

 **CHAPTER 30**

Tony stopped his sigh of relief from passing his lips, but Loki's look confirmed he shouldn't to have bothered; his relief had been broadcasted by the bond loud and clear. This was exactly what he'd been talking about; the fact that he couldn't hide anything and Loki could throw up a steel wall in front of Tony's bond-probing efforts was totally unfair. He emptied his glass in one go, the 25-year-old single malt BenRiach pleasantly burning the back of his throat. It was only a 300-dollar bottle, so it didn't need to be sipped like a 1945 Macphail. The only thing it needed was some ice. On the rocks was much better for this type of whiskey.

Tony filled half of his glass again – when did he ever care about official units of alcohol – and gestured between his and Loki's glass. "Care to do a magic trick? These would be way better with ice cubes." Loki was magnanimous enough to let his exasperation bleed through the bond, and after a second stuck his finger in Tony's glass with an amused glint in his eye. Ice slowly formed on his fingertip and grew and grew until it almost filled the entire glass in a single bloc of ice, barely leaving enough space for the whiskey and making it virtually impossible to drink without spilling it everywhere. No more alcohol for this conversation; message received loud and clear. Just to be contrary, Tony tipped the glass back and got as much whiskey out of it as he could. Sure, the ice squashed his nose with its weight and perfectly good scotch dribbled down his chin in rivulets, but whatever. A swipe of his arm later, it was gone.

He put his glass down and sank into the nearest armchair. "So. That explanation."

Loki took the time to appreciate his drink with his eyelids half-closed, his thick eyelashes framing the ruby slits of his eyes, bottomless pupils trained on Tony, and it felt like he was being watched by a dangerous feline happy to have caught its harmless little prey. Tony swallowed, unable to tear his eyes away, and his lips tingled at the sudden memory of… earlier. Before dinner. You know, the moment their lips happened to be in contact for like half a second. And he had no business remembering this now, so what the hell, subconscious? The next instant the look had been wiped off Loki's face and Tony could breathe again, relieved.

"It would probably be easier to do this lying down." Well, that brought forth more unwanted imagery. This was about learning how to shield his mind, damn it! "One needs to relax one's mind to be able to establish the shielding that protects it from many magical attacks, and in this case, prevents emotions from being shared by the soul bond."

"Okay, fine. We'll get ready for bed first. But don't you dare fall asleep on me so you don't have to teach me." Loki simply smirked in response and headed for the bathroom, leaving Tony alone to strip down and throw on some much-needed pyjamas. A physical shield was almost as important as a mind shield these days when it came to Loki. They'd been much too close this afternoon; he didn't think he could stand much more skin contact tonight. A hand in his all night would be nerve-racking enough. His thoughts had gone in an uncomfortable direction too often as of late.

The moment Loki stepped out of the bathroom Tony rushed in to take his place. The sooner they could start the mind-bubble lesson, the sooner Tony could hide behind it when needed. Being able to have some _real_ privacy would be fucking awesome. He'd been surviving on denial, wilful forgetfulness and pretending it didn't matter, but he was sick of having to rein in his emotion not only physically, but also internally – he was afraid he'd failed much too often. Who knew what Loki thought of all the uncomfortable incidents in which Tony would have liked to keep his feelings to himself. He hadn't even wanted to feel said feelings, like with the… peck on the lips. Or the glimpse he'd had of Loki's… No, concentrate on brushing your teeth, Stark. Don't think of your soulmate's arse— too late. Bloody hell, he better learn how to shield _this_.

When he got out, Loki was already lying on his side of the bed with his hands under his head, on top of the covers – perhaps to show he had no intention of sleeping to evade teaching him. It just had the disadvantage of displaying Loki in all his almost naked blue glory, the cloth of his underwear hiding the only part Tony hadn't seen yet. No wait, where had that 'yet' come from? That almost sounded like Tony wanted to see Loki's… private parts, and he definitely didn't. Nope. Totally wasn't interested. If he kept telling himself that maybe that way it would become true.

Tony settled himself in a similar position on the other side of the bed, and silence reigned. Tony suddenly felt nervous, which was absolutely ridiculous, but it still made him ramble out something at random. "Was it okay, staying blue all day? I know you absolutely hated it before but you didn't really seem uncomfortable to me; but then, what do I know, you could have hidden your discomfort behind your shield, of course."

"It was… surprisingly normal, especially towards the end of the day. I would sometimes even forget and only be reminded when noticing my own skin."

"Hmm. Good." Tony turned his head on the pillow so that he could see Loki's profile. "You should feel 'normal' in the skin you were born in." Loki looked towards him then, and while not a single of his facial muscles moved, Tony could feel how pleased he was. They looked at each other for at least a full minute before Tony had the strength to tear his eyes away and turn his head back towards the ceiling.

"Shall we start then?" Loki said. "It might be easier in the dark."

J.A.R.V.I.S. immediately obliged. Tony blinked away the complete darkness of the obscured windows and the extinguished lights. Only the dimmed light of his Arc reactor remained, as did the tiny reflective pins of drawn constellations in his ceiling that he was barely starting to get used to seeing. He had gotten them installed as a romantic gesture for Pepper – sleeping under the stars was supposed to be romantic, right? It was probably good that they weren't very visible now. Loki in his bed wasn't supposed to be romantic in any way. It wasn't supposed to mean anything at all.

"Relax your mind and concentrate on where you can feel the bond. Banish all other thoughts." Banish all other thoughts, easier said than done; they weren't touching but Tony could feel Loki's presence beside him as if he was a lighthouse and Tony was lost in the fog and the dark, desperate to find his way home. The bond was pulling at him, trying to convince him to just move his arm and find Loki's hand, and that was awfully distracting. "Concentrate," Loki chided.

"Yeah, yeah." He huffed and scrunched his eyes shut tighter. If he couldn't quiet his mind – which he had never been able to do so it wasn't going to happen now – then he could still do something he was good at; multitask. So besides Loki's skin that pulsed next to him with every heartbeat, he concentrated on that feeling of the bond, in his chest, in his brain, where it shone like a tiny light blue star. Or maybe not such a tiny star. They weren't touching, but perhaps the proximity made it look bigger? Or maybe it had grown with time? If it was the latter, that was kind of worrying. What if it grew so big that there was no way to contain it behind a shield or something?

Next to him, Loki sighed. "Focus on the bond and its thread. The place where the thread of our soul connects to the mind is where you want to build your shielding."

"Only the mind one? Not the heart one?"

"The connection at the heart is the connection to your magical core. You realise feelings do not originate from the heart itself, do you not?" Tony could hear the mockingly raised eyebrow in Loki's voice but did his best to ignore it. He knew when silence was the best answer. Better not antagonise Loki when he was finally going to teach him the shield thing. The urge to say something to defend himself against the mocking tone Loki had used was still strong though. Luckily Loki started talking again before his mouth did whatever it wanted. "Once you have visualised the entirety of the bond in your mind, you can focus on protecting it entirely. If you miss a section of it, that piece would be exposed and slowly be used by the bond to dismantle your shielding completely."

"How do you know all that? I mean, you managed to use the shield thing almost right away. And I don't think yours has been 'dismantled' in the way you're discribing. Unless we're touching. The shield is not as strong then… Is that what you mean? When we touch you can't keep all of it hidden and your shield slowly fails?"

"My experience does not come from the soul bond – I have been taught to shield my mind a long time ago. It serves as a protection against wild magics, the backlash of certain spells, and mind magic."

"Mind magic? Like mind control? That didn't work out great for you, did it?" Tony said with a smirk. The thwack against his upper arm came out of nowhere – it was dark after all – and Tony could not hold back the surprised "ow!" that escaped his lips. "Geez, sorry," he mumbled, vigorously rubbing at the spot on his arm. "No need to get into beast mode if I hit a sore spot."

Next to him Loki stopped breathing and went entirely still. Their connection through the bond went completely dark on Loki's side, and Tony didn't need to feel the sheets under him getting colder and colder to know he'd managed to put his foot in his mouth somehow. And if it wasn't the dig at his being controlled by Thanos – that had not been a clever comment to start with – then it had to be because of the word 'beast'. Another word that needed to be shelved in the taboo section, right next to the words 'monster', 'daddy issues' and 'adoption'.

Tony sat up and J.A.R.V.I.S., his clever boy, flicked the lights on at its dimmest setting. Tony was familiar enough with Loki's face now that even in the poor light and with the alien skin, he could see that Loki's jaw was so tight it was a wonder his teeth weren't cracking under the pressure. Loki's eyes were fixedly looking at the ceiling – or perhaps they weren't looking at anything at all – and the breaths that went in and out of his nose were loud and unnaturally regular.

Tony's hand hovered over the skin of Loki's arm, unsure if touching him was a good idea, or the worse idea ever. On the one hand, fully connecting the bond might soothe Loki's… whatever this was. A panic-attack? A wave of self-loathing? Both? Neither? And on the other hand, touching him might compromise his shield as it had done before, which Tony guessed Loki wouldn't want right now, so Tony might be thrown off the bed – in the best-case scenario – or frozen solid inside a huge chunk of ice – you guessed it, worst case scenario. To touch or not to touch, that was the ten billion question. Probably better not to. Words were what started this mess, words would have to resolve it.

"I'm sorry fo—"

"I apologi—"

They both stopped talking at the same time and looked at each other, Tony's mouth still stuck in the 'o' of his aborted last word. There was a beat of silence, then another, and Tony blinked his confusion away. "Why the hell are you apologising?" Loki's mouth opened to answer, but Tony didn't let him. "Sure, I could have done without the bruise on my arm, but I know my bringing the whole mind control thing up like that was not okay. And while I didn't mean anything by the 'beast mode' comment, it obviously brought up some bad memories or something for you, which was way worse than that hit on my arm, since you got the sheets all frozen by reflex."

Tony touched him then, but it was unneeded; the skin of Loki's arm was already thawing, and the ice that faintly glinted in the low light was melting as well, leaving the covers damp. With a gentle tug, Tony's magic glided down his arm and the sheets warmed until they were all dry and pliant, as if they'd just been taken out of the dryer. (Not that Tony had ever taken clothes out of a dryer, but it's what he expected it to be like anyway.)

Loki took a deep breath and released it slowly. The bond relaxed, Loki's walls getting thinner and thinner. Tony's gaze remained on his soulmate's face for a moment, but Loki kept looking at the ceiling. "How about we pretend the last few minutes didn't happen?" Tony asked, and that got him a look and a nod. He laid back down and J.A.R.V.I.S. switched the lights back off. Tony's hand was still on Loki's arm, and as there was no protest he left it there for now.

"Concentrate on finding the borders of the bond in your mind," Loki said, which was totally unnecessary as Tony had already started working on that. Only what he found now was not a star hanging by a thread, but a sun double its size with fuzzy, pulsing borders difficult to visualise, and a cable so bright sticking out of it that it was difficult to keep looking at it even in his mind's eye. Tony lifted his hand, breaking their connection, and the white dwarf star was back on its thread. He put his hand down, and a yellow dwarf as big and bright as the Sun invaded his mind. He lifted his hand, put it down; Sun, a star, Sun, a star, and a wave of exasperation from Loki stilled his hand in mid-air.

"Once you can see where you need to shield your mind, you can start visualising the shield itself. The shield you imagine depends on how you envision the rest of your mindscape. It can be a bubble, as you have called the shield before, but it might be difficult to put into practice when it come to the thread. It is the thread you need to pinch shut, however if you do not entirely encompass the rest of the bond in your mind, the connection will grow from another section instead. That is the reason why it is much more difficult to shield when the bond's connection is strong – though I have to admit that even without touching, shielding has needed increasingly more concentration to maintain."

"Great. So it's gonna be more difficult to learn now that the bond's had time to grow in my mind, is what you're saying?" Tony grumbled. This should have been tackled the moment he'd heard about the mind shield. Nothing he could do about it now, though. "Thanks for the head's up, I guess," he sighed. "What do you see in your mind then, for your shield?"

"A chest of dark wood with golden accents, similar to one I used to have in my room when I was younger. The bond is pinched off where is goes through the keyhole. All I have to do is force the bond inside the chest, close the lid and keep the bond from turning the key."

"…Right." That totally made sense. Or not.

"You can imagine anything that has the capacity of enclosing and locking up the bond."

"Right." It sounded simple when Loki said it, but all Tony could 'see' in his mind was a whole lot of nothing and star on a string. He didn't have a mindscape that looked like anything he knew – when he worked problems out they just appeared somewhere in the nothingness, like calculations or designs floating in mid-air, and disappeared when they weren't needed anymore. The bond though, that wouldn't leave or budge. He tried making a wooden chest – he could see it clearly, inside and out, but when he tried to place it around the bond it just… wouldn't fit. He tried a few times, but it was like one of those toddler toys where you had to fit shapes into holes; it was no use trying to push the square through the circle. No matter how big he imagined that fucking chest the bond just didn't fit inside somehow. All the rules of physics said it should – at this point the chest was at least three times the size of that stupid star – but as some sodding magic was at work here, nothing worked.

Screw the fucking chest, then. He was an engineer; he could invent something that could contain a star on a string, dammit! He could feel Loki pushing an eerie impression of calm at him – it rode the bond's string like a monorail of emerald light, the same colour of Loki's eyes when he wasn't blue, and crashed into the bond's star in his mind, slowly dissolving inside it and disappearing. Or becoming one with him – the frustration that had been on the point of making his blood boil had all but vanished. Also, Loki's bond was green? He'd never noticed that. And how did that make sense, anyway?

"Why's the colour of your bond not the same as mine?"

"Why should I know such a thing? My bond is the same colour as my magic; I expect yours to be the same colour of your magic as well. It would make sense for your magic to be the same shade as your Arc reactor, as it is one of the sources you would draw it from."

Oh. He hadn't realised, but the star in his mind was indeed a very familiar light blue. "Wait, Magic has a colour?" He didn't remember 'seeing' the magic in specific colours, it was just… there. And not there. Colourful and colourless.

"Certain spells, when cast, will bring out the colour of the wielder's magic for all to see."

"So for the same spell, magic has a different colour depending on who uses it?"

"Yes."

"And do you think the colour of my magic changed because of the Arc reactor? Like, was mine the same colour as yours and it changed, or was it always this colour to begin with and it's just a coincidence that the Arc reactor is the same colour? You said soulmates have the same magical signature, right? If my magic wasn't changed by the Arc reactor and was blue to begin with, how come we have the same magic? I mean, wouldn't it make sense for soulmates to have the same colour?"

"And are you going to tell me that it does not make sense that we do not have the same eye colour, or hair colour, or skin colour because we are soulmates as well? Our bodies are not the same, our minds are not the same, our magics are not the same even if they leave the same signature. The only thing that is truly one our soul."

"For now."

Tony blinked and stared at the dark ceiling. Wait, that had been his voice saying that, hadn't it? That mouth-brain connection really needed rewiring, because what he'd just said sounded really not good, because he had totally not meant anything like there could be more parts of them that would be 'one' – the images that immediately appeared in his mind were absolutely not welcome. He ignored the warmth that shot through him and concentrated on saying something that wasn't stupid. "You know, like, after a while of knowing each other people start to think alike a bit and stuff." Yeah, that didn't sound as smooth as he would have liked. Plan B then; change the subject. "And we've joined our magic together as one before and all that. So, that didn't really have a specific colour because it wasn't a spell I guess? Or was it because it was a mix of our magics?" There. Safe.

"It wasn't a spell. And I do not know what colour our joined magic would be if we were to use it to cast a colour-revealing spell together."

"Teal? Turquoise? Depending on who's fuelling most of it?"

"Have you changed the subject long enough now to go back to our original purpose? Not that I would mind it if you decided that constructing a shield for your side of the bond was too difficult for you. I completely understand if you need to report this endeavour to tomorrow; I will not think any less of you, I assure you." Now that _sounded_ like a lie, and Tony turned his head towards Loki. His teeth were gleaming in the low light of his Arc reactor, lips stretched into a smirk no doubt, but there was no lie that the bond could feel. Huh. "I never expected you to manage it in the first place," Loki added in a tone full of contempt, and hello there, strong and familiar itch in his chest!

Why did Loki say stuff like that if he knew Tony could feel the lies behind his words? Force of habit? Or was this some sort of twisted way of him to try to encourage Tony, or something? Was it too big a blow to his ego to just say 'you can do it, I believe in you'? Though to be fair, if Loki said something like that there was no way Tony wouldn't be completely weirded out. Yeah, better let him continue to use his twisted backwards ways of expressing himself. "Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence!" Tony drawled for good measure. "I was totally nailing that shielding business before you so rudely interrupted me with the different colour-scheme of your side of the bond." Right. And he did the lying thing to, didn't he? To protect his pride. He knew Loki would know the truth though – AKA his pride would be blown to bits regardless. It should bother him. Shouldn't it? Wasn't it logical to be frustrated by the constant exposure? And yet it was so… liberating. So relieving. To know that someone at least knew what he was hiding, what he was really like, knew what he actually meant to say but couldn't. He suddenly wished that there hadn't been any possibility of shielding to begin with.

But there was shielding, and it was disrupting the balance of power in a really unpleasant way – if someone should have the advantage over their minds then surely it should be Tony, given that Loki already had the advantage physically and magically. _You screwed that one up, Fate lady_! But whatever, Tony would fix it, like he always did. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the bond again. Right, where were we? Not a chest. What else? The image of a cardboard box sprung to mind, which was absolutely ridiculous – who in their right mind would put a star in cardboard box wrapped in tape? He needed something strong. Like a vault. With a keyhole to let the thread through. But wasn't that the same as the chest idea?

He needed something different. If only the bond didn't look like the Death Star constantly firing its Superlaser— Wait, okay, there was an idea. He had a shieldless Death Star, and that was bad news for the Empire. He needed a shield that was adapted to its form – guess what, a fucking _bubble_ , he'd said it all along – made of a harmonised energy force field that instead of protecting the bond from outside threats would confine it within the shield's bounds. And then the only thing he needed was some type of circular hole in said shield that could be closed tightly around the bond's thread – the Stargate's Iris barrier was a good example of that. All he needed was imagining a Stargate-like ring around the bond's thread, that had the shield generators attached to it, and voilà. He just needed to punch in the launch code.

Tony took a deep breath and flipped the switch. A transparent-blue sphere of energy grew around the bond-star like a circular tsunami whose edges crashed into each other, closing the shield-bubble just before the bond lashed out with a solar flare. The shield caught the punch in a glitter of sparks but held, and Tony let out the breath he'd been holding. The thread was still merrily sending information Loki's way, but the core of the soul bond had been captured, and after that initial lashing out, didn't seem to mind being caught. So far so good. Tony activated the circular door, and the hole grew smaller and smaller until it hit the thread. There it whirred with an unbearable screech that almost deconcentrated Tony entirely, and the bond's star lashed out on all sides, but Tony concentrated on the door and it pushed at the thread and forced to grow smaller and smaller and—

Tony gasped and his eyes flew open. It— There— What— Tony took a quick breath, and out, and then another. This was… weird. He felt— He didn't know how he felt. Numb, he supposed. Like he'd somehow ended up underwater and all his senses were dulled. How did Loki manage to live like this? This felt so wrong! It felt so… unnatural. He knew this stupid bond wasn't meant to be smothered in any way!

"Hush, this feeling will pass soon. Just breathe through it," said Loki's voice from somewhere far away. Tony vaguely wondered if his shield was holding – how could Loki know what he felt otherwise – but everything looked okay when he inspected it, and the horrible feeling of missing something vital was still there. "Breathe slowly," Loki voice said as it was floating by, and Tony realised he was maybe breathing a tad quickly. As in, he was totally hyperventilating. He wondered if he should be embarrassed by that, but then again why should he? Why was anyone ever be embarrassed? Embarrassment was a feeling Tony suddenly couldn't make sense of, and that was wrong. Was it, though? His mind was telling him it should be wrong, though he couldn't fathom why that was. One thing was sure, this shielding business was not okay. There were alarm bells going off in Tony's mind for some reason, and while a little voice was telling him this was horrible and wrong he couldn't actually _feel_ it – and that probably meant the little voice was right. Right? Why the hell did Loki not tell him how horrible the whole shield business really was?

Something eased on Loki's end and suddenly Tony felt almost normal again. Loki's concern and puzzlement bobbed along the thread and forced its way through the pinched shut circular gate. The wave of forced calm that followed was rather redundant at this point – Tony had found control over his lungs again the moment Loki did… whatever he did. A slight ripple of annoyance entered Tony's shields, and then it hit him. Loki had lowered _his_ shields. And the moment he did, shielding wasn't such a horrible feeling anymore for Tony.

"Was that normal?" he asked the moment he had regained his breath.

"There is always a moment of discomfort when shielding one's mind. However, it seems that it was much worse for you than I expected." Tony didn't have to see Loki to know he was frowning. And that had to be transference from the bond too, wasn't it? The fact that he knew that this bothered Loki much more than he let on.

"I'm fine now. It was fine the moment you lowered _your_ shields. So now I have a theory."

"If you are thinking that we cannot shield at the same time, then I have to inform you that such a thing should be absolutely preposterous." Loki fell silent for a few seconds and sighed. "And yet I fear that it is nevertheless so."

Tony turned on his side, the light of his Arc reactor illuminating Loki's profile through his shirt. "Well, there's no time like the present to test out our theory. I'll let you do the honours, Smurfette."

Loki turned his head towards him and sneered. "How gracious of you."

Tony simply smirked back, and after a few seconds Loki closed his eyes and turned his head back up towards the ceiling. A slight frown of concentration pulled at his forehead and the moment Tony felt Loki's connection to him fade away, the frown deepened. Tony could see the muscles in Loki's jaw jump when he clenched it, and his breathing picked up, though it certainly didn't get anywhere near as fast as Tony's had. Either the lucky bastard didn't feel as horrible as Tony had felt, or he had some kick-arse pain tolerance. Probably option two if the nails digging into the covers were anything to go by. The seconds ticked by, Loki as straight as a plank beside him, every muscle tautened, and Tony sat up, worried. What the hell was he doing? This was proof enough of their theory already, Loki could let go of his shield and—

Unless… "If you really think I'm gonna lower my shields to help you out of this and give you the tactical advantage back, think again. I know you'd like to believe I'm that stupid, but I assure you I'm not, babe." Not even half a second after Tony had finished speaking, Loki's side of the bond exploded with life, feelings of all sorts rushing to meet Tony and leaving his own shield ringing with the impact. There was annoyance, anger, pride and amusement that Tony could identify, but the rest was lost in a rush of warmth that had dissipated before he could put his finger on it. "Theory confirmed, then?"

"Obviously." Loki sounded just as irritated as he felt through the bond and Tony couldn't stop his lips from stretching up in triumph. He finally had the upper hand! "There is no need to look so smug," Loki said, and warning bells went off in Tony's mind. Before he realised what was happening, there was a finger touching the hollow of his neck and his beautiful shield exploded in a gazillion sparks with, weirdly enough, the faint smell of burnt fuses prickling his nose.

Loki's smirk couldn't be wider, and the smugness that the bastard was throwing at him on purpose was tainting his big Sun's bond-cable light green. "It is not so easy to keep the shield in place when we touch, is it? Now, who do you think can bring their shield back first when I stop touching you?"

"I'd say 'wanna bet?', but that would just be sabotaging myself. I yield, oh master of shields. Not that it matters, given that we'll be going to sleep anyway. You know, while holding hands. I've got a feeling that all shields disappear while we sleep." Loki's silence was answer enough. The next moment the finger was gone and Loki's feelings were behind lock and key.

"Given that we have been touching for a prolonged length of time today, I do not believe we will need contact tonight to be able to sleep restfully." Good news, that. _You sure about that_ , the annoying little voice asked Tony, and he told it to shut up. Of course it was good news. That way he wouldn't end up crawling half on top of Loki during the night and wake up in an embarrassing position the next morning. And still doubt niggled at the back of his mind. What if… What if, if they didn't touch, Loki could keep his shield while sleeping? He hadn't answered his hypothesis earlier, and that might have been because he didn't want Tony to know how shielding was supposed to work during sleep. But as far as Tony could remember, the shield hadn't been up the moment Loki woke up. If touching during the night made the shield disappear, he needed to find a reason for them to hold hands anyway.

"No hand-holding. Well, hooray I guess. Just one question: if we don't touch during the night, at what time tomorrow will we have to start holding hands? 'Cause I don't fancy having to drag you behind me all afternoon if I can help it. Working with two hands is so much easier." Loki remained silent and Tony smirked. "Exactly. Sorry to burst your bubble, honey – or your treasure chest or whatever – but the fight over shielding will happen tomorrow morning." Loki held Tony's gaze, and even in the low light he could see the glint of warning and determination in there. The first one to wake up would have a definite advantage, and they both knew it.

They crept under the covers in silence, and Loki grabbed Tony's hand without being prompted, which felt like a tiny victory on Tony's part. He was also rather satisfied with the odds that awaited him – he had woken up earlier than Loki more than once he was sure, so he had a pretty good chance of grabbing that shield first. He closed his eyes and let his exhaustion claim him.

The light that filtered through his eyelids was tainted orange and too bright for the comforts of sleep that he wanted to sink back into. He'd been in the middle of a very nice dream he was sure. He couldn't remember what it entailed but it was much better than waking up, no doubt. The bed was much more comfortable than anywhere else he could imagine. He scrunched his eyes shut tighter and snuggled up closer to the body he was holding. Hair tickled his nose, which was maybe not that nice, but it smelled good. His left arm was a bit squished, sure, but his right arm was slung over someone's waist and his fingers were interlaced with someone else's, and every cell in his body was telling him this was one hundred percent great. He shifted slightly, his morning wood pressing deliciously against someone's lovely behind. Yep, he was definitely staying right where he was.

Two whole seconds passed before niggling doubt made him fling his eyelids open. Black hair, a blue ear; he was spooning Loki and his erection was touching Loki's arse and if Loki woke up right now… Tony would die of embarrassment right then and there. He couldn't move, barely dared breathe even, and willed his stupid dick to stand the hell down. But his lower abdomen was taut and tingling, blood rushing down and making him only harder, because some treacherous part of his mind was telling him that thinking about his soulmate in that way was actually a good idea and his dick was agreeing with it, the bastard. He needed to get out of here right now, before Loki woke up and realised—

The hand holding his moved imperceptibly and Loki's sleepy side of the bond stirred. Tony flung himself backwards and away from Loki like he'd been burned, struggling with the sheets until he was flat on his back and not touching Loki in any way. He closed his eyes, visualised the bond – _quick, hurry!_ – and threw his shield up – _too slow, Stark, why are you so fucking slow_ – and pinched the thread and held his breath while the overall numbness encompassed him… and stayed… and lifted… He let out a relieved breath when he realised he'd managed to shield before Loki could, and he would have turned to his soulmate whose muddled confusion he could feel and lorded his successful shielding over him, if it weren't for the other little – or not so little, thank you very much – problem that remained.

Before Loki could think of turning towards him and potentially see the slight tenting of the covers, Tony rolled himself out of bed and rushed to the bathroom with a slight limp, and locked the door with a satisfying click. Holy shit, that was close! He didn't dare stopping to concentrate on his shield for even a second, but even though those thoughts weren't fuelling the downward flow of his blood, his stupid dirk refused to stand down on its own. Tony sighed. A cold shower was in order, then. When was the last time he had needed to get rid of an erection that way, instead of indulging himself in a nice wank – or something much better? He wasn't sure he could even remember a time where cold showers had been a thing for him…

Though now that he thought about it… He was in possession of the bond shielding. As long as he kept a firm hold on it, and as long as he was silent enough – let's not forget the super-hearing that made his reinforced walls useless – who said he couldn't get rid of his erection the nice way? By God, he needed a good wank! And who knew, it might even make his mind remember that he preferred women, not male-hermaphrodite aliens, thank you very much.

Tony ripped off his pyjamas, mind made up, and turned the shower on at a nice warm temperature. Time to get rid of the sexual tension that had been building since the day Loki had come down to Earth, made his life had take a wrong turn and threw him head first into Lalaland. He checked his shield; nice and strong. With the water beating down on his shoulders he let his hand wander down his wet chest until his fingers encountered the base of his dick. He slowly wrapped them around his girth, squeezing just a little too hard to be comfortable, and slowly slid them up his length. He twisted his wrist with a jerk when he reached the head, clenching his jaw, eyes shuttered, and breathed heavily though his nose, not a sound escaping his lips.

He imagined the curves of a random woman – said woman had almost taken on Pepper's face, since that had been his go-to fantasy for quite some time, but thinking about Pepper now was just utterly wrong – so he tried to make her faceless, hair dark so that there was no chance they could become strawberry blond, keeping her facial features as vague and blurry as possible. A faceless woman reminded him of his college days when he hadn't yet been able to charm any woman he fancied into his bed.

He imagined that his fingers were replaced by those of Faceless Woman, her fingers long, her nails too, accidentally grazing the sensitive underside of his dick with them, her thumb circling his foreskin and skimming his slit, teasing him with a smirk before lightly gliding down his dick again. Her hand was large, larger than Tony's, strong and self-assured; her hair was long and black; she was breathing in Tony's ear, a warm puff of wind, or maybe a cold breeze; she was tall, pushing Tony against the wall; her skin was both soft and tough and unforgiving; she was strong, stronger than Tony and there was nothing he could do to stop her – not that he would even think of stopping her. Her lips brushed Tony's cheek, sharp teeth nipping at Tony's skin, an emerald iris looking at him full of amusement. His hand was stroking Tony in earnest now; his other hand playing with Tony's balls for a bit before coming up to tweak one of Tony's nipples; his sapphire skin contrasting deliciously with Tony's; the ruby of his eyes obscured by his wide-blown pupils—

Tony's hand stuttered on his dick when the blaring of the red alert went off in his mind – when had his fantasy Faceless Woman turned into his freaking soulmate? He should stop, he should stop right now; but he was getting real close and his hand wouldn't stop their jerking motions and the image in his mind's eye refused to change. His mind was full of Jötunn blue and creamy-white skin both, red and green eyes and long black hair, quirked eyebrows and smirks and a rumbling voice – even imagining a blue dick just as hard as his pressed against his side was the exact opposite of off-putting, and he couldn't seem to be able to reason with himself and put a stop to this.

There were sparks in his mind, sparks all over his skin, and his blood was humming along with the rhythm of his hand – and by God, he hadn't even come yet and this was already the best wank he could remember ever having. His mind was singing, a wildfire lighting up every pleasure-centre in his body; the bond was quivering and chanting along, the thread in his mind a trembling braid of blue and green, his shield too thin and wavering, and he couldn't care less when it popped like a soap bubble. There was lust and delight and sighs of pleasure joined to his, flashes of blue skin that almost felt real, and pure warmth encompassing him, holding him, pushing and pulling him towards the edge, the ghost of another hand joining his. He couldn't hold in a moan when his balls started to contract, and when he came, long streaks of cum flying towards the shower's glass wall, he knew that in their bed, Loki had come at the same time as him.

His trembling thighs suddenly couldn't hold his weight anymore and his slid down the wall, the warm water cascading down his hair and face, dripping over his open mouth as he tried to breathe, sanity still off-line and shocks of pleasure still echoing through him – through him and through the bond. Through him and through Loki. He had wanked thinking of Loki. And he had forgotten about his shield, which meant Loki had felt what he was doing. And for some unfathomable reason, Loki had decided to join him in his self-indulgence instead of trying to tune Tony out, and he had felt Loki come too – and by God, this had been the best wank of his life!

But it had also been the worst, because he had wanked himself to completion together _with Loki_! With his _much too male soulmate_! The wrongness and embarrassment and mortification and shame burned him through and through, and he wished he could go hide somewhere and never, ever see his soulmate's face ever again.

Bitterness, self-depreciation and a stab of heart-breaking sadness rose to his throat like bile, and Tony only realised those feelings weren't his when the other side of the bond closed off with the resounding slam of the lid of a wooden chest being shut. The sudden isolation of his mind left him reeling, and he sat under the spray for a long while, incapable of coherent thought. There was only one thing he knew – Loki had taken the mind-shield, Tony was all alone in his rooms, and it was all his own fucking fault.

* * *

Soooo. That was that I guess. My Tony is an idiot, but we already knew that. Poor Loks XD But hey, it's still progress! Two steps forward, one step back kind of thing?

Also, we might have a new guest appearing in the next chapter. Who knows, maybe they can help defuse the situation ;)

 _Spread the Luv!_

 **LL**


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